A&E closure could be referred to Health Secretary
A COUNCIL health watchdog will decide whether to refer controversial changes to hospital services to the Health Secretary at a meeting today.
Jeremy Hunt could be asked to review proposals to expand Calderdale Royal Hospital and downgrade Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.
A beefed-up hospital in Halifax would be become the main A&E centre for the two districts under the plan, which has raised safety fears over longer journey times to hospital.
Health campaigners are furious after learning that the new Huddersfield hospital would have just 64 beds after it was planned to be a 120-bed site.
It has also emerged that NHS bosses did not provide Calderdale and Kirklees joint health scrutiny committee with the Full Business Case (FBC) report on the plans because it is “commercially sensitive”.
Councillors expected the full document ahead of today’s meeting, but only extracts were provided.
Coun Liz Smaje, joint chairwoman of the scrutiny committee, said: “All committee members fully understand the concerns of residents and campaigners and we feel it is important that the meeting goes ahead in public on the day that is planned in order to provide the committee with the opportunity to review the information and to assess whether or not it addresses our concerns.”
Owen Williams, chief executive of Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said the FBC was still in draft form. He added: “Once it’s been through the trust’s internal governance and shared with our regulators, we’ll look to publicly share as much of the document as we can, subject to matters which might be assessed as commercial in confidence.”
Dozens of protestors are expected to be in attendance at Huddersfield Town Hall from 9.30am today when the Kirklees-Calderdale Joint Health Scrutiny Committee discusses the plans.