Call to halt ‘erosion’ of services at hospital

A PATIENTS’ group is urging East Riding Council to help reverse the “erosion” of services at Bridlington Hospital as patients are faced with travelling up to 40 miles for appointments.

The Bridlington Health Forum’s chairwoman, Jean Wormwell, said the group welcomed calls to restore services at the hospital.

She said many of the town’s elderly residents and their relatives are having to travel to Scarborough and York while twothirds of beds in Bridlington have been mothballed.

Ms Wormwell added: “We don’t see this as a political issue. This is about the health and wellbeing of Bridlington’s people.”

There are also concerns that a report by the East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) stated four services at Scarborough, some of which serve Bridlington, were under review.

It comes as Coun Mike Heslop Mullens said the hospital had suffered a “total and continuing decline” despite being named as a centre of excellence for general and orthopaedic surgery in 2018.

The Liberal Democrat, of Bridlington North Ward, called on the council to lobby the Government to step in.

A spokesperson for the York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, said a range of services were available at the site, but some specialist facilities had been moved elsewhere.

The spokesperson added that more specialist services are now provided in larger centres such as Hull, York or Scarborough.

Tracey Craggs, a commissioning director at the CCG, confirmed that the NHS is using technology to boost out of hospital care, reducing the need for people to travel for appointments.

She added: “We are aware that any potential future changes to service provision at Scarborough Hospital may have an impact on services in Bridlington.”