ON AIR NOW:

Conservatives and Labour unite to oppose Scunthorpe General Hospital changes

Labour and Conservative councillors in Scunthorpe plan to oppose proposed changes to services at Scunthorpe General Hospital, including the loss of its trauma unit.

Under the plans, elements of a number of departments would be hosted solely at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital, in Grimsby, in future, rather than at both hospitals. This means that the Scunthorpe trauma unit, as well as out-of-hours emergency overnight surgery and longer stays for certain patients, would go to Grimsby.

A consultation on the plans was launched last week by the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). It points to staffing shortages as the key reason behind the proposals.

READ MORE:

However, a joint motion by Labour and the Tories has described the changes as “a major downgrade” for Scunthorpe General Hospital. The parties have reserved the right for a judicial review if the proposals go ahead. An NHS boss said the way services were currently organised was “not sustainable” and urged all interested parties to visit the consultation website to see the full details.

The services that would be transferred solely to Grimsby are:

  • The trauma unit.
  • Overnight emergency surgery.
  • Hospital stays of more than 72 hours for patients with heart, lung or stomach conditions.
  • Paediatric overnight (inpatient) care for children and young people who need to stay in hospital for more than 24 hours.

Daytime emergency surgery would remain available at Scunthorpe General, along with a paediatric assessment unit for children. Most A&E services would not be affected, with NHS modelling estimating that 93 per cent of people attending the emergency department would be unaffected.

The joint motion, moved by Conservative group leader Cllr Rob Waltham and his Labour counterpart Cllr Len Foster, will be decided on at a full council sitting on Thursday, October 5. Both parties had tabled “not too dissimilar motions” and then worked together to emphasise the council’s opposition to the proposals.

Referring to the NHS claim that doing nothing was not an option, Cllr Foster said: “They’re billing it as a fait accompli by saying that. We would argue differently. The distances travelled from the Scunthorpe area to Grimsby would hinder the level of care that people can get.”

He added: “Further into their document, they argue it is more financially beneficial to do it in Grimsby rather than Scunthorpe. What price do we put on people’s lives?”

Cllr Foster warned of the consequences of consultants heading elsewhere to live. “Once you start moving away things like the trauma unit, for instance, you lose your specialists. The socio-economic structure changes if you’re only providing minimum care levels.”

The public consultation on the changes began on September 25. The ICB has emphasised its desire to hear from as many people as possible and has insisted that the changes could vary, based on the responses.

Alex Seale, the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB director for North Lincolnshire, said: “We believe the changes we are putting forward will improve the quality of urgent and emergency care, trauma, and inpatient paediatric care for people in northern Lincolnshire and ensure patients have access to the most highly skilled professionals when needed, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“The services we are considering changing are primarily for patients who need more complex emergency diagnosis, treatment and care after receiving an assessment through one of our Emergency Departments.” These, along with the paediatric changes, were to “improve services for those with the most urgent and complex needs”.

She added: “Doing nothing is not a viable option. The way our services are currently organised is not sustainable. That means hospital emergency care is not always meeting national clinical standards and some specialist staff are spread too thinly across hospital sites.”

Bringing services together in one hospital would provide access to them 24/7 and “address critical shortages in workforce” by organising them more effectively. Patients would “be seen and treated more quickly and stay in hospital for less time,” Ms Seale stated. “We would encourage all interested parties to visit the Better Hospitals Humber website at www.betterhospitalshumber.nhs.uk to find details of the proposal that has been put forward by the local NHS and understand the case for change that we are making.”

A consultation exhibition and drop-in session will take place at The Pods in Ashby Road, Scunthorpe on Friday October 20, from noon to 8pm.

Want to sign up to the Scunthorpe newsletter, but can’t access the link below? Click here.

Original artice: https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/all-about/scunthorpe

Scroll to Top