Hospital switch plans to go before health secretary
CONTROVERSIAL plans to change South Tyneside and Sunderland hospital services are set to be referred to Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt.
Health bosses insist vulnerable services at the hospital are now “safe and secure” after the crunch meeting on February 21, but campaigners were “absolutely devastated” with the decisions.
Representatives from Sunderland and South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) met to determine the future of three areas of hospital care: emergency paediatrics, stroke services and maternity and gynaecology.
Now, South Tyneside councillors are set to recommend the hotly-debated proposals to be referred to Jeremy Hunt after members of the authority’s Joint Health Scrutiny Committee determined the Path to Excellence consultation was inadequate and not in the interests of the health services in the area.
Councillor Rob Dix, co-chair of the committee, said: “This Committee has spent very many hours scrutinising the proposals put forward by the CCGs.
“We recognise that local hospital services are an emotive topic for our residents and for ourselves as people who live in the Borough but this decision has been made for clear and valid reasons.
“We will not be bullied into making any decision that we feel is not in the interests of the people of South Tyneside and Sunderland.”