HRI legal hearing put back

HIGH court action due to start yesterday in the battle over a major shake-up of hospital services in Kirklees and Calderdale has been postponed.

Campaign group Hands Off HRI were successful earlier this year in securing a judicial review – a court case that will look into the business case for the closure of HRI’s Accident and Emergency and main hospital building.

The judicial review claim due to be heard over three days in Leeds has been put back to September 24 to allow the local NHS organisations to undertake the further work recommended by the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP).

The claimants, hospital trust and local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), applied to court for a four-month stay after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt published his decision and the advice of the IRP, which required further work to take place before a final decision could be taken on proceeding with the reconfiguration.

The NHS Trust wants to axe the A&E department at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and replace the 400-bed hospital with a 64-bed “planned care” facility.

There would be a single A&E department at Calderdale Royal Hospital. The plans would also see a transfer of capacity to Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, which would be expanded to have 674 beds.

The cost of the plans to the taxpayer are estimated at being over £300 million, proposed to be funded by a Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

However, Mr Hunt has written to the CCGs and hospital Trust setting out his concerns about the proposals.

The IRP panel has questioned the viability of delivering a re-organisation on such a scale as well as whether funding would be in place.

Mr Hunt has asked the NHS locally and nationally to reconsider the proposals and asked for a report on progress in three months in implementing the IRP’s recommendations.

Mike Forster, campaign leader of Hands Off HRI, said: “We intend to fully engage in the review and we will be talking to our legal team on Thursday.”

Yogi Amin, partner and Head of Public Law and Human Rights at Irwin Mitchell said: “The IRP has required the Trust and CCGs take the further action and has emphasised that until this takes place, a final decision cannot be made about the future arrangements for hospital and community health services in Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield.

“The IRP has sent a very clear message that the current proposals are not in the best interests of local people and has stated that the current proposals differ sufficiently from those contained in the consultation to warrant renewed engagement with local stakeholders.

“Our clients very much hope that the Trust and CCGs will now go back to the drawing board and respond to the concerns of local people in a meaningful way and undertake the further work in a transparent way. We will continue to scrutinise the work undertaken and ensure that a lawful process is followed.”

A decision on whether the judicial review will go ahead will be made in October once the hospital Trust and CCGs have completed their work programme and confirmed their response to Mr Hunt’s decision.