Hospital ‘not being reduced in status’
Scarborough Hospital bosses have dismissed suggestions that the town’s A&E is to be downgraded.
Scarborough Hospital bosses have dismissed suggestions that the town’s A&E department is to be downgraded. The hospital, according to the district’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), could transition to ‘hot’ acute and diagnostics site, while elective care would be spread out across the footprint at York, Hull and Bridlington.
The CCG says it needs to secure a sustainable future for Scarborough Hospital - in particular maintaining “core services” including emergency medicine, obstetrics (pregnancy and childbirth) and paediatrics (services for babies, children and young people).
BridlingtonHospital,itsays, would continue as an Elective Care Centre. In the CCG’s operational plan for the next two years, called the Sustainability and Transformation Plan, it says it ‘envisages Scarborough Hospital site becoming primarily a ‘hot’ acute and diagnostics site, providing the essential ‘red line’ services at Emergency and Urgent Care, Obstetrics and Paediatrics.
It states: “Following national guidance on the future model for urgent and emergency care services, the emergency care model will be a guideline compliant centre supported by multi-disciplinary emergency medical, ambulatory care, and orthopaedic trauma streams.
“Elective hospital care will be delivered according to acuity and complexity. Working withallprovidersacrosstheSTP footprint, complex cases will be managed in the larger specialist units at York and Hull. Intermediate and minor electives (includingthemajorityofOrthopaedics) will increasingly be delivered at Bridlington Hospital.”
It also says: “The locality ambition is to increase elective capacity at Bridlington Hospital site which will reduce elective cancellations and further support delivery of the standard, whilst allowing the Scarborough hospital site to focus on acute admissions and rapid access to diagnostics.”
Mike Proctor, deputy chief executive at York Hospitals Foundation Trust, said: “At any one time Scarborough Hospital has at least 100 patients in our 1,000 beds that no longer need to be there but there’s a lack of beds in the community to support them. For those patients that can move on, it’s probably damaging to their health to keep them in hospital. Keeping these patients in hospital costs an awful lot more.
“The Sustainability and Transformation Plan is trying to have a realistic look at what resources are available to try and live within its means.
“It’s not a cover for cuts, it’s a way of trying to make better use of the resources that we’ve got. What we have to do is make a shift in the way that we use that resource. There’s changes on the way that will work.
Speaking directly about Scarborough Hospital, Mr Proctor added: “We took over the management of the hospital five years ago. It was obvious that it could not survive as a stand alone organisation. But we have to have a hospital in Scarborough. We have to have an A&E in Scarborough. That has not changed. Scarborough Hospital is a far better and safer environment for patients than it was five years ago.”
When asked about the line in the plan about reduced numbers of consultants and use of advanced clinical practitioners he said: “That has certainly taken place.
“It’s a great model and it’s received national attention. We’re using that model at the moment, it’s a huge success. Gone are the days when every emergency department does everything.”
However when pressed on if this was a downgrade Mr Proctor replied: “That’s rubbish.
“It’s not a downgrade. There’s no changes to the patient. It is an A&E department.
“That money isn’t there. We have to change the current system. It’s not sustainable. It’s not in the interests of patients. I really believe that it’s the right thing to do.
“For patients yes, but also for the NHS and for the country as a whole. It’s about making sure we don’t spend money that we haven’t got.”