2016-11-03 20:42:39 +0000
To: North Kirklees and Wakefield CCGs and the Board and Governors of Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust
Keep All Services at Dewsbury District Hospital
1. Reinstate fully consultant staffed maternity services and A&E at Dewsbury District Hospital
2. Reinstate fully consultant staffed paediatric services at Dewsbury District Hospital
3. Stop the sale of land and retain flexibility for services at Dewsbury District Hospital in the future.
Why is this important?
The consultant led services, for mums giving birth in the conurbation around Dewsbury, are due to be moved to Pinderfields Hospital Wakefield, in September 2016, to be replaced by a midwife led unit with 6 beds. Often mums in labour do not call an ambulance, but travel to hospital independently, via car or public transport. I would not want to travel from Cleckheaton or Birkenshaw to Pinderfields on the bus. Other women with no car may feel the same which will mean more calls for ambulances. The midwife led unit is for low risk births only, so first time mums should be directed to Pinderfields which will be dealing with higher risk births from the North Kirklees AND Wakefield areas. Will this not put a strain on the resources in Wakefield?
Just after the Government Body rejected the Kirklees and Wakefield Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JHOSC) Report that the changes to Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust's Dewsbury District Hospital site were not in the best interests of the local population, the Daily Mail published a study showing that the death rate amongst inpatients at nearby hospitals, went up, when Newark A&E was closed.
A large study in America also came to this conclusion.
Shockingly, news has broken that Huddersfield Royal Infirmary is also earmarked for closure and replacement by an Urgent Care Centre. Pontefract Hospital has also just been redesignated an Urgent Care Centre. The resulting scenario of driving seriously ill patients in ambulances across the region and subsequent overcrowding in hospitals which have a fully functioning A&E will have a knock on effect for patients around the whole region of West Yorkshire and beyond, Barnsley for example and Oldham.
We know Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust is facing 'winter pressures' and it is mid summer! Why do the CCGs and Trusts not get together and tell this 'democratically elected' government to stop the NHS vanity projects and fully fund front line services?
This is what happened in a neighbouring hospital in London, when Chase Farm hospital was closed.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/19/north-middlesex-ae-staff-describe-unit-as-unsafe-and-unsupported
Strategic Projects team
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36847643
How it will be delivered
In person at a Governing Body Meeting in public and Trust Board meeting in public with press in attendance.
