WARD RETURN COULD TAKE YEARS

Health bosses have been warned that it could take years to return the children’s ward at St John’s Hospital in Livingston to a full 24/7 service.

In a bitter blow to the parents of young children in West Lothian, a Dr Doyle informed NHS Lothian that the current staffing recruitment model could take two to three years to reopen the ward to inpatients.

However, NHS Lothian have said the paper

was written before their most recent staff recruitment and their outlook is now “more optimistic”.

NHS Lothian were told in a paediatric board committee update yesterday: “In response to a question about ensuring safety for patients under the proposed model, Dr Doyle advised that there was rigorous training and professional accountability for advanced nur s e practitioners.”

It continues: “It was expected to take two to three years to reach the proposed position. In the meantime there would be a period where patients would continue to be admitted from St John’s Hospital to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.”

But NHS Lothian have said they are closer to reinstating the paediatric inpatient service at the hospital with their current recruitment plan.

Jacquie Campbell, chief officer of Acute Services, NHS Lothian, said: “The meeting paper referred to was written before we held the interviews for the trainee Advanced Nurse Practitioners posts.

“Now that we have met, assessed and employed our new recruits, our timelines are more optimistic.

“We are delighted to have appointed three members of staff to our team. These new posts show our commitment to restoring the service as quickly as possible and are a really exciting breakthrough.

“We have communicated with our staff and patients throughout the course of the last year and reassured them that we will not reinstate inpatient paediatric services at St John’s Hospital until it is safe and sustainable to do so.”

The health board said that they anticipate that the three new trainees, who were appointed in August, will be able to participate in the outof-hours rota in late 2019 or early 2020, depending on progression through their training.

The news comes less than a week after Health Secretary Jeane Freeman failed to give any timeframe as to when the ward would return to full service in her parliamentary statement.

Ms Freeman said: “I have received an assurance from the chief executive that the board has set milestones for reinstatement of the service when adequate and safe levels of staffing are in place, with the aim of having the service back on a sustainable basis as quickly as possible.” parents’demand – pages 4&5