Vigil held ahead of hospital battle

COURT BID BEGINS TO PROTECT SERVICES

HEALTH campaigners have gathered for a vigil on the eve of their legal battle to “save” their hospital from being “downgraded”.

The Save South Tyneside Hospital campaign (SSTHC) has raised thousands of pounds to mount a legal challenge to proposed cuts at the hospital.

And today a judicial review challenging the proposals will begin at the High Court in

Leeds.

The campaign centres around plans to move some elements of maternity, children’s and stroke care from South Tyneside to Sunderland.

The planned shake-up of services in the area was approved by the Sunderland and South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in February. This included:

■ Moving acute stroke care from South Tyneside Hospital to Sunderland Royal Hospital;

■ Changes to management of maternity care, with a consultantled unit in Sunderland and a midwife-led counterpart in South Tyneside;

■ An overhaul of pediatric care, leading to daytime emergency provision in South Tyneside and 24/7 provision in Sunderland.

The day before the hearing was due to begin, campaigners gathered outside the hospital for a protest vigil. Roger Nettleship, of SSTHC, said: “It was a really good send-off before the three days in court.

“We are hopeful – our solicitors have prepared a good case and hundreds of people have contributed to funding it.

“Our argument will centre around an unlawful consultation process and the fact that the decision was discriminatory to the people of South Tyneside, which will also have a knock-on effect on the people of Sunderland.

“We’re really pleased to have the opportunity to make them think again.”

Matt Brown, director of operations at South Tyneside CCG, said: “These critical changes have been about taking steps to protect services that are exceptionally vulnerable because of a severe shortage of skilled medical and nursing staff.

“These are highly important services for our patients and the CCGs took their decision-making extremely seriously, based on clear clinical evidence.

“It was very valuable to have the process we’ve followed and decisions we’ve made around the future of hospital-based stroke, maternity and urgent paediatric care reviewed by a team of experts at the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP).

“The IRP advised the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in the summer that they found that changes to these vulnerable services are in the interest of local health services in South Tyneside and Sunderland – and we know that we are seeing positive improved treatment and outcomes, particularly for stroke patients, as a direct result of these changes.

“We are confident in our open and transparent public consultation process which was awarded a certificate of ‘Best Practice’ from the independent Consultation Institute, and as always, we are grateful to all our hard-working NHS staff locally, in particular to those who are working in these vulnerable services while there continues to be uncertain until this legal challenge is resolved.

“We will continue to openly engage with staff, patients, stakeholders and elected members over the coming months as we work together to develop future plans for the best possible local hospital services.

“Together we are all committed to securing the very best care for the people we serve, the residents of South Tyneside and Sunderland.”