THREAT TO HOSPITAL A & E UNIT
Outrage over ‘ downgrade’ at Ayr
Health bosses are planning to ‘ downgrade’ A& E at Ayr Hospital – in the health secretary’s constituency, the Post can reveal.
In a shock move, they want to transfer trauma patients 15 miles away to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock.
Ayr Hospital is in health secretary Jeane Freeman’s constituency.
According to an insider, major life- saving services could be transferred to Crosshouse, leaving University Hospital Ayr as a scaled back shell. They claim the orthopaedic department and weekend vascular services could make the move to the Kilmarnockbased hospital.
The insider said: “I overheard doctors talking about A& E’s orthopaedic department moving to Crosshouse.
“And vascular services at weekends.
“I heard them saying that car crash victims would have to go to Crosshouse.
“You don’t want your A& E department under threat.”
Fe a r s t h at Ay r H o s p i t a l ’ s A& E department is under threat have sparked grave concern.
Ac c o r d i n g t o a n insider major life- saving services could be moved to Crosshouse, leaving University Hospital Ayr as a scaled- back shell.
T h e y c l a i m t h e orthopaedic department will move 15 miles to the Kilmarnock hospital.
We ekend vascular treatment is also shifting to Hairmyres in East Kilbride.
The shock move emerged after our source heard doctors discussing the plans in the cafe at Ayr Hospital.
The insider, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “I overheard doctors talking about A& E’s orthopaedic department moving to Crosshouse and vascular services at weekends.
“I heard them saying that car crash victims would have to go to Crosshouse.
“You don’t want your A& E department under threat.
“That’s the kind of thing folk need to know about.”
Orthopaedics deal with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system, including disorders of the bones, joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles.
Vascular services cover conditions affecting the circulation, including disease of the arteries, veins and lymphatic vessels.
Health chiefs have said they are “working with clinical teams on both sites” to determine how to enhance orthopaedic services.
Chief executive John Burns said: “The model of major trauma care designates hospitals as major trauma centres, trauma units and local emergency hospitals according to the facilities and expertise available.
“University Hospital Crosshouse will be the designated trauma unit and the local emergency hospital for the population it serves.
“University Hospital Ayr will be the designated local emergency hospital for the south of the area.
“Both University Hospital Ayr and University Hospital Crosshouse will continue to have emergenc y departments.
“To support this change we are working with clinical teams on both sites to determine how we further enhance our orthopaedic services both in terms of elective and emergency orthopaedic care.
“Our ambition is to have the best emergency and elective orthopaedic services that provide the best outcomes for our population and to maximise the skills and expertise of our staff.
“This may result in a change to the way that services are configured across both sites but there will continue to be orthopaedic services within University Hospital Ayr and University Hospital Crosshouse.
“Implementation of the trauma network will see investment coming to NHS Ayrshire & Arran to support the trauma unit and enhanced rehabilitation to support recovery.”
Health bosses admitted changes had been made to their emergency weekend vascular services and patients may need to travel to Hairmyres for emergency treatment.
Crawford McGuffie, joint medical director, said: “As part of this sustainable model of care emergency weekend cover for vascular services will be provided by an on- call vascular team based at University Hospital Hairmyres.
“Vascular clinicians from Ayrshire will contribute to this regional rota.
“This means that patients may need to travel to Hairmyres for emergency treatment.
“However, this is in order to ensure that patients have access to the most appropriate and clinically safe emergency vascular services at all times.
“This is similar to the successful model that has been in place for the treatment of heart attacks over the last decade, whereby patients are transferred from Ayrshire for advanced treatment in Lanarkshire.
“Where a patient has had to be transferred to University Hospital Hairmyres for emergency treatment they will be transferred back to an NHS Ayrshire & Arran hospital as soon as it is clinically safe to do so.”
South Scotland Labour MSP Colin Smyth said: “NHS Ayrshire and Arran should ensure that full consultation is carried out with patients and staff before changes are made. Given the financial crisis and cuts facing the NHS, patients and staff need to be given very clear assurance that there will be no detriment to services in any part of Ayrshire.
“There are always understandable concerns from residents in South Ayrshire that services are centralised away from Ayr.”
Ayr Hospital lies in health secretary Jeane Freeman’s constituency. She failed to make a comment before our deadline.
We are working with teams on both sites