Thousands have their say on stage one of hospital plans
The first stage of a public consultation over proposals to change hospital services in Sunderland and South Tyneside has gathered more than 1,000 comments from the public.
Called The Path to Excellence, the public consultation was launched last month and runs for 14½ weeks until October 15.
It focuses on some areas of hospital care which are delivered at South Tyneside District Hospital and Sunderland Royal Hospital, including stroke care services, maternity (obstetrics) and women’s healthcare services (inpatient gynaecology).
Urgent and emergency paediatric services are also included in the review.
City Hospitals Sunderland and South Tyneside NHS foundation trusts formed an alliance in March 2016 to work together more.
Public events will start again in September, with additional events being planned, which will be announced soon.
Nine events have been hosted across South Tyneside and Sunderland during the consultation so far, which have been attended by 329 people. More than 1,000 comments have been received and 3,836 visits made to the consultation website
Dr Shaz Wahid, medical director for South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We’ve already had a number of very helpful comments and suggestions on how these proposals might be improved upon and we would very much welcome further public and staff involvement.”
To find out more, sign up to My NHS via the www.pathtoexcellence.org.uk.