Residents urged to use personal experience as part of fight to retain NHS services

PEOPLE are being urged to use their personal travel experiences in a fight to retain the A&E and maternity units at Darlington Memorial Hospital.
The services are at risk through changes being proposed by an NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP). Under the STP either Darlington or North Tees hospitals could lose some of their units, including A&E, elective surgery, paediatrics and maternity.
Speaking to a large audience in Middleton-in-Teesdale last week, county councillor Richard Bell called for people to respond when a consultation on the changes takes place later this year.
He said: “This is the threat – it is either Darlington or North Tees that is to be a specialist elective care centre hospital, and either Darlington or North Tees hospitals to be a specialist emergency hospital and emergency centre. So one of the hospitals will lose that specialist emergency role.
“We think it is important now though, to start collecting personal testimonies about the importance of travel to hospital.”
The councillor said personal accounts would make a more powerful case than simply providing factual information about how much further people would have to travel to North Tees Hospital, in Stockton.
NHS bosses say the changes are necessary because of a shortage of consultants and midwives and rotas cannot be filled at all hospitals. They add that moving the services to only one of the two hospitals will provide better care around the clock.
It is feared that people in Teesdale will have to travel too far for help if A&E and other services are moved to North Tees Hospital. However, NHS bosses say the quality of care people receive is more important than the time it takes for them to travel to get care. Cllr Bell questioned the view and said: “While travel time is less important than the care you receive when you get there, there has to be a limit otherwise you would pack everyone on the train to one hospital in London. There must be a point where the time outweighs the quality of the care when you get there, but neither you nor I know what those limits are.”
He called on doctors to make there voices heard about the changes, because the STP lead has said during engagement meetings that clinicians support the changes.
An inquiry by Darlington Borough Council in February heard from a doctor that not all clinicians support the STP.
Cllr Bell said: “Even if they do agree with the proposals, I would like them to put their heads above the parapet and say ‘I do think this is a good idea because…’, because then we can all stop worrying and go home and watch television and do something more agreeable instead. But at the moment we have people like me who have this vague feeling that this is a management plan that is not backed by the clinicians.”
Public consultation on the STP proposals is expected to take place in September.