A councillor has described how he zig zagged between Redcar, Middlesbrough and Whitby with blood pouring from his head in an effort to get a wound stitched.

Councillor Steve Kay relayed his tale of woe during a debate at a Redcar and Cleveland Council scrutiny committee about planned improvements to urgent care services. Current proposals will see a new urgent treatment centre established at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, alongside A&E. Meanwhile, the current urgent treatment centre at Redcar’s Primary Care Hospital would open 24/7, 365 days a year.

The North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board is behind the plans and hosted an 11 week engagement exercise which ended last month. It hopes they will provide the “right care at the right place, minimising disruption and frustration for patients and improving efficiency and quality of outcomes”, while reducing the time to access urgent care. The organisation says more people are accessing health services than in the past and patients aren’t always sure where to go for urgent care.

Coun Kay, the cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “It’s a disgraceful situation this matter of not being able to get attended to when you are in an emergency. The whole thing needs shaking up.”

A councillor told how he was forced to 'zig zag' between hospital to get a wound stitched

Recounting his personal experience, he said: “I hope they have somebody there [at Redcar] who can stitch up a wound. I had an occasion when I badly split my head open, there was blood everywhere, and I rang Redcar Hospital and it was a weekend. They said ‘Yes you can come, but we have no-one who can stitch a wound, you will have to go to James Cook’.

“We drove there and I opened the door of A&E and could not get in because of the number of people who were in there, and thought I’d probably be waiting for a few weeks having bled to death by then. I went home and contacted a GP we knew and I thought I’ll just go down to his house and see if he can stitch up this wound, when the [GP] partner said ‘Why don’t you ring Whitby?’

“I rang and said ‘Can you stitch a wound – they said ‘Yes’ – ‘Is there a long wait?’ – ‘No’ – I went there and there was nobody else there, I went straight in and had it stitched up, problem solved. There are a lot of things wrong there – why do we have this imbalance?”

Craig Blair, the board’s director of place for Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland, who addressed the committee meeting, said: “I absolutely fully agree if you require stitches, Redcar should be able to provide that. As part of the proposals we would expect there to be a standard offer in terms of the treatment you can get from Redcar.

“In terms of demand, it fluctuates day to day, hour to hour, right across the NHS. There will be days when James Cook is absolutely bursting at the seams, but North Tees and Hartlepool might not be and vice-versa. There isn’t always a sound reason behind that, it is just one of the things we have to try and manage.

“The lights are always on in A&E, anybody can come in, but part of the issue is some of the people we have got coming in, they don’t really need to be there, but it is not always clear where you can get your needs met. This proposal is about making it really clear where the best place is to go, hopefully this will help reduce some of the queues that are experienced.”

Counc Shelagh Holyoake, who chairs the adults, wellbeing and health scrutiny committee, described how her husband quit his finance post in the NHS because he “could not do his job for a lack of funding”.

She apologised to Mr Blair for members giving him a hard time during the debate, before adding: “That’s what we are here for”.

Another council cabinet member, Mary Ovens said: “I went to the engagement [event] at Redcar and we had a wonderful GP there who was absolutely enthusiastic about it [the urgent care plans], but that isn’t necessarily going to be replicated across the piece.

“Having got my elbow seen at Redcar and being bound up, and then referred to the minor plastics team in Middlesbrough, I can say I had a wonderful experience when I needed caring for, but it is getting to that right person in the end that is the key thing out of it.”

Councillor 'zig-zagged' between hospitals to get head wound stitched as blood poured from the cut