Vascular surgery to end at town infirmary

HUNDREDS OF patients could be affected by plans to end vascular surgery at a Yorkshire hospital.

Beds will be moved from Huddersfield Royal Infirmary to Bradford Royal Infirmary and the change will affect up to 800 patients a year.

Public consultation on the proposals has now ended, and officials at NHS England are expected to reach a decision in March.

West Yorkshire currently has three specialist centres for vascular services – Leeds General Infirmary, Bradford Royal Infirmary and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, which is run by Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

But NHS chiefs want to reduce that to two at Leeds and Bradford, removing surgery that requires a hospital stay in Huddersfield, although out-patient appointments will continue.

Vascular services reconstruct, unblock or bypass arteries and are often one-off specialist procedures to reduce the risk of sudden death or amputation and to prevent stroke.

NHS chiefs claimed the populations served are too small and the number of procedures completed too low. They also point to “significant workforce challenges” with Bradford and Huddersfield providing a joint alternating weekly on-call rota where only two of the arterial centres are on call at any one time.

This is deemed “unsuitable” as a long-term solution, with larger centres needed to ensure outcomes for patients are “sustained and optimised”.

The 800 affected patients represent seven per cent of vascular activity in West Yorkshire. Minor surgery, diagnostics and outpatient clinics would remain at Huddersfield.

Health bosses said recruitment of vascular consultants “is a challenge nationally”, that there is insufficient medical expertise coming through the training programmes and demand for vascular care is rising.