May 5: Yorkshire Dales pay the price of centralised health services

I AGREE with every word written recently by your contributor Gerald Hodgson (The Yorkshire Post, April 17).

The social problems are now many due to an ageing population, of which I am now one. I was born at Hawes and did 
work for a time as a district nurse, midwife, health visitor and now my relatives are
unable to obtain the services they need.

Midwifery has changed due to services being taken from the Friarage Hospital.

Obstetric services and the paediatric consultant have been moved to a centre of excellence at Middlesbrough South Tees Trust.

Of what use is this when the point of excellence is too far away?

Babies can come very quickly and the top of Swaledale is too far for safety.

Babies should be born where there are correct facilities, not by the wayside or in a car. One baby from Muker was delivered in the Hawes surgery.

Every GP needs to be obstetric-trained but this will become rare, a midwife-led unit should be nearer to the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The children and expectant mothers should get more consideration from the Government. Two MPs are responsible for the National Park, you only get free healthcare at the point of access.

People have to provide cars and telephones in order to access healthcare and of course it costs more.

All the points of access are outside the Yorkshire Dales. Bradford has facilities for 
stroke and Alzheimer’s disease, but the point of access is 
going to be further away by taking these patients from Airedale Hospital. Airedale has closed our cottage hospitals in order to fund itself.

The spring edition of the 
Dales newspaper points out a duty to seek and foster the social and economic wellbeing of local communities.

The level of traffic pollution in the Dales is not good for health – now I can no longer live at Hawes because traffic pollution caused asthma.

It was Dr Pickles at Aysgarth surgery who discovered jaundice was infectious (hepatitis).

He told me how he did it; and became the first President of the College of General Practitioners. The Dales doctors used to do research in his memory.

Why do the Dales doctors no longer carry out research?

After all, we pay the same taxes and insurance as people in towns but we do not get the same services.

Our children are at risk.