Major hospital plan date set

AN OUTLINE planning application which will be part of a major reconfiguration of health services in Huddersfield and Calderdale is set to come before planners early next year.

Calderdale Council’s Planning Committee meets on January 4, 2022, and senior health chiefs confirmed plans which include a new A&E department, new wards and a new car park at Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, should be considered there.

Anna Basford, Director of Transformation and Partnerships at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said several independent reviews of services recommended changes are needed to improve services.

The trust’s plan is to invest in Calderdale to provide extra wards, operating theatres and a new A&E department, especially improving paediatrics as both existing A&E departments are not compliant with current standards, and a new A&E building plus investment into existing buildings at Huddersfield to address safety requirements.

Unplanned, urgent, care will be based at Calderdale Royal

Hospital while planned care will be based at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, she said.

In financial and recruitment terms, the separation of care will reduce patients having to be transported from one site to another, allow one department devoted to a specialism on one site rather than two departments over two, and improve the trust’s ability to attract key staff, councillors heard.

Consultants working in fields including radiology had left the trust because of the split site situation, said consultant Dr Mark Davies.

The new wards would be designed to be multifunctional and reconfiguring, for example, all acute services on one site meant not doubling up.

The bed capacity across both sites will remain the same.

Reconfiguration of health services in Huddersfield and Calderdale is set to come before planners