Hospital downgraded in NHS revamp

Health chiefs have revealed plans to downgrade Bridlington hospital so that it will no longer treat heart patients or medical emergencies - reports the BBC.

The site will become a community hospital under proposals announced by the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Cardiac and acute patients will instead be treated at Hull or Scarborough.

Elsewhere in East Yorkshire, the NHS received news of a £20m funding boost, including a new hospital in Beverley.

However, this extra money - while welcome - is little more than a day's worth of money the government now pays into the EU's audit-failing budget at £115 million every single week.

The government investment will also fund a new healthcare facility in Hornsea and major refurbishment work at Driffield's Albert Bean Hospital.

So imagine what could be achieved with the equivalent of just one more day's payment to the EU, if our massive financial contribution to that audit-failing organisation were diverted instead to essential health services.

The investment is the largest single award in the latest wave of the Department of Health's £750m capital investment programme for community hospitals and services (NHS improvements being worth only six and a half weeks' worth of our payments to the EU, in the government's eyes).

On the future role of Bridlington Hospital, the Scarborough and North Yorkshire PCT said: "During the public consultation run by the trust earlier this year the support and passion for Bridlington Hospital was extremely well voiced by local people.

"Whilst recognising the level of public interest and concern...it would be neither prudent clinically, professionally nor financially to maintain services in their current format in the long term.

"Overall the number of patients served by both hospitals [Bridlington and Scarborough] is relatively small and having services duplicated across sites affects future sustainability of those services."

In September, health union officials warned that if the cardiac unit at Bridlington was closed, lives would be put at risk as patients would have to travel further for treatment.

Earlier this year, the trust revealed it intended to cut 600 jobs in an attempt to reduce its £20m deficit and cut costs.

But the losses were averted at the last minute after an agreement was reached between the trust and the strategic health authority to write off the debts.

Yorkshire: NHS chiefs tackled over job cuts

Union officials are to meet NHS bosses for talks over cost-cutting measures that could see hundreds of jobs axed at Scarborough and Bridlington hospitals, in Yorkshire.

Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, needs to plug a £15m shortfall in its budget by cutting 600 jobs.

Ward closures and reductions in non-clincal support services are also threatened.

Unison said it feared the job cuts could be as high as 1,000 out of a total workforce of 2,500.

Brenda Lloyd, Unison's branch secretary, said: "How can they hope to provide good health services to people in this area with this level of cuts?"

‘5,000 midwives are needed’ to cope with increase in birthrate

Nearly 5,000 more midwives will be needed by 2012 if the Government is to meet its target for maternity services, the Royal College of Midwives said yesterday.

The college has increased its target from 3,000 because of a rising birthrate, which has exceeded government estimates, and a reassessment of present shortages.

The call came on the same day that a baby was born in the back of an ambulance after her mother was unable to give birth at her nearest hospital because there were not enough midwives on duty.

In April the Government published its blueprint for maternity services, promising women a choice of where to have their babies.

The RCM said at the time that the proposals could not be delivered without at least another 3,000 midwives. But it has now revised the figure upwards, arguing that many trends threaten to upset the Government’s plans.

There has been a 12.5% rise in the birthrate since 2001, but midwife numbers have risen by only 4.5% since 1997.

The RCM said that fewer midwives were being trained, and even those who did qualify found it hard to get jobs because of the cuts made to bring the NHS back into financial balance.

Nearly half of all midwives are due to retire in the next decade, the RCM said, but demand for their services is greater because births are becoming more complex.

Louise Silverton, deputy general secretary of the RCM, said: “We have real concerns about the Government’s ability to deliver because there are simply not enough midwives.”

Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, which ran a £7.2 million deficit last year but is planning to break even this year, provoked a row by announcing plans to cut 600 jobs, a third of its workforce.

It also plans to cut all deliveries at maternity wards in Malton, Whitby and Bridlington in favour of a unit in Scarborough.

A lack of midwives at Malton Hospital forced Sally West, 36, to take a 26-mile trip to Scarborough. Malton is only three miles from her home and she had expected to give birth to her daughter there. Instead Phoebe was delivered in an ambulance in the car park of Scarborough Hospital.

Clive Milson, Phoebe’s father, accused hospital bosses of “gambling with people’s lives” and urged them to keep the units open.

“We were fortunate there were no complications.”

Bridlington & Scarborough: NHS trust announces 600 job cuts

The Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust has announced that it is to axe 600 jobs, comprising a third of its workforce, in a bid to save £10m and balance its books - the BBC reports today.

The cuts are the latest in a long series of similar actions by NHS trusts across the country, being forced when cost over-runs are not being met with extra funds from central government.

The government is finding the cash, however, to gift an extra £2.5bn a year (net) to the wasteful European Union (which already receives £3.5bn a year on average). Yet The EU hasn't been able to have the majority of its accounts approved by auditors for twelve years in a row.

Latest figures from the NHS Information Centre show that 17,000 posts have been closed in the last 12 months alone.

The North Yorkshire trust runs Scarbrough General and Bridlington District hospitals.

Unison regional officer Ray Gray has condemned the huge cuts in staff levels as a "disaster" for health services in the area.

"Job losses on this scale are completely unsustainable. It would devastate the NHS in this part of Yorkshire and have a profoundly damaging effect on the local economy", he said.

"How the trust has ended up in this dire situation is a matter of grave concern and we are seeking urgent talks with the Secretary of State for Health to find a way of saving the jobs and the health service in the Scarborough district."

North Yorks: Furious GPs attack health chiefs over ‘panic’ cuts

Health chiefs are ordering swingeing cuts in health services serving 750,000 people in Yorkshire in a "panic" attempt to tackle a dramatically-worsening financial crisis – reports the Yorkshire Post.

Sick patients referred to hospital could be sent back home, injured casualties turned away from A&E and people forced to endure waits of up to 16 weeks for operations under plans drawn up by NHS managers in North Yorkshire.

Last night family doctors claimed the emergency package was a "panic measure" in the face of urgent demands from Ministers to make savings, and warned patient care would suffer.

North Yorkshire’s newly formed Primary Care Trust (PCT) had faced a deficit of £24m in 2006-07 but officials now believe the cash crisis has significantly worsened and it could run up debts of £45m unless action is taken.

Measures being put in place are:

• New assessments of emergency admissions to hospitals in Scarborough, Northallerton and York;
  
• About half of patients in A&E being told to seek alternative help from walk-in centres, minor injury units and GPs;
  
• The imposition of minimum waits of 12 to 16 weeks for patients requiring routine surgery and 8 weeks for outpatients;
  
• The suspension of a range of treatments including joint injections, a ban on some investigative procedures and curbs on IVF treatment;
  
• A ban on some drug treatments and non-essential follow-up hospital appointments.

John Givans, secretary of North Yorkshire Local Medical Committee which represents GPs said they were "horrified" at the package.

He said: "This will undoubtedly cause patients to suffer increased pain and I can see all sorts of risks associated with it.

"The whole thing is a panic measure as a result of pressure from the government."

Cllr Sue Galloway, executive member for adult social services on Lib Dem-run York Council said: "It’s no use passing the buck because local authorities are cash-strapped as well. Already our services are over-stretched and we just cannot take people on. People are going to be in really, really desperate straits."

Selby Labour MP John Grogan said: "My fear is that unless a grip is got on the financial situation, the next step would be to propose very significant bed and job cuts, which would be completely unacceptable."

In a letter to health chiefs, chief executive of the troubled PCT Janet Soo-Chung said: "We fully appreciate the difficulties that the introduction of these measures entail. However, the financial position of the PCT is such that there is absolutely no alternative programme if we are to avoid even more difficult decisions in the near future."

Of course, one alternative would be for the government to stop wasting vast sums by sending it to the European Union, and bail out troubled PCTs like this one with a tiny fraction of the money that would be saved.

Sadly the government cares more about propping up the wasteful and fraud-ridden EU than it does about preventing these hospital cuts.

If Selby MP John Grogan votes to hand the extra £2.5bn a year Tony Blair has gifted the EU when it comes before Parliament, unfortunately the same will have to be said about him.

That’s unlikely to go down well with voters come the next election.

- Article contributed by: B.S., Hull

Yorkshire: NHS facing more pain after dental fees blunder

Cash-stricken NHS trusts in Yorkshire face another blow amid fears a government blunder in calculating controversial dental charges will leave a multi-million black hole in budgets.

A survey by the Yorkshire Post has found health chiefs in the region are predicting losses of up to £11m in revenue from the new dental charges introduced in April.

The huge shortfalls are being felt across England.

If the same pattern were to be repeated nationwide it could leave the NHS facing a dental charge deficit of more than £100m in 2006-07 – on top of an escalating crisis in health service finances which is already leading to big cuts in care.

Last night dentists’ leaders warned the shortfall could be made up in future years by big increases in dental charges.

The total loss in Yorkshire is predicted to be £10.9m, although the figure excludes East Riding.

The biggest predicted deficit is in the Bradford district, where health chiefs estimate they will be £2.4m below target by March.

Sheffield primary care trust (PCT) could run up losses of £2m.

The losses are exacerbating the NHS financial crisis. In latest estimates, NHS trusts in Yorkshire are predicting they will plunge £129m into the red by the end of March.

Scarborough dentist John Renshaw warned there were dangers charges would go up. He said: "If PCTs are not getting this money, then it’s going to hit them big time when they’re already in trouble.

"You can see what will happen. Charges will go up to make up the shortfall and the trouble is it’s already fairly expensive to get treatment on the NHS.

"It will cause further damage to services in the future as it will get more difficult to get affordable care under the NHS."