Politicians look north in bid to halt axe on maternity services

The proposed measures – which have provoked a storm of protest – would see full maternity care at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton downgraded to a midwife-led unit, meaning women due to have complicated births would have to travel to places including Darlington to have their babies. Young patients may also have to travel to other hospitals for inpatient children’s services.

However, the leader of Richmondshire District Council, Coun John Blackie, has embarked on a series of visits to hospitals in Scotland which are similar in size to the Friarage in a move to try to persuade health chiefs to maintain services.

The information which Coun Blackie is collating on the tour of rural services in Scotland is being used by the district council and North Yorkshire County Council to try to find a solution and persuade senior NHS managers of the case for keeping the services.

NHS chiefs have voiced concerns that doctors at the Friarage Hospital will not be able to retain and develop their clinical skills because there are not enough mothers-to-be and children using the services.

They have warned that problems in recruiting and retaining specialist staff in Northallerton will mean services for higher-risk pregnancies and children needing overnight hospital stays will no longer be viable.

Services were temporarily closed in 2009 due to staff shortages and problems providing specialist cover are expected to be exacerbated in future.

But Coun Blackie, whose proposals have been backed by members of his local authority’s district council strategy board, maintained that he believes lessons can be learned from rural healthcare in Scotland and a report will now be prepared, based on his experiences north of the border, arguing the case for keeping the status quo.

“The Borders General Hospital at Galashiels operates a 24/7 consultant-led maternity and children’s service – rated very safe and with the same number of live births (1,214 annually) as the Friarage,” Coun Blackie added.

“So keen were the consultants, midwives, and NHS managers there they even took time out of running their clinics and ward rounds to proudly tell me about their can-do attitude that ensures these services will remain at the hospital in the long term future.

“Overcoming all the difficulties we are told by our local NHS apparently prevent these services from continuing at the Friarage – including the lack of middle grades and training posts and the recommendations of the Royal Colleges – they have designed a bespoke staffing structure and operational plan that costs only £400,000 extra annually, a long way short of the hyper-inflated £2.7m in the Friarage consultation documentation.”

Coun Blackie will also be visiting Dumfries Hospital and Elgin Hospital in the Highlands – and will feed in information he gathered from trips to small hospitals in the West Country last year to the plan.

He has also been invited by Richmond MP William Hague to join him in a private meeting in London with the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, later this month to discuss the pressure on rural NHS health services.

Public talks are being held on the issue and the chief clinical officer for the Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Dr Vicky Pleydell, has stressed there will be an opportunity for people to suggest alternative solutions which will be considered along with “all the other views collected during the consultation period”.