A rally has been staged in protest against proposals to cut services at a Yorkshire hospital.
Thousands of people attended the event in response to plans to close Bridlington Hospital’s cardiac monitoring unit and acute medical services. The Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust wants to relocate the services to Scarborough Hospital, nearly 20 miles away.
NHS experts at the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) have conducted an independent review on the plans and will be submitting a report to health secretary Alan Johnson, who will make the final decision.
A trust spokeswoman said of the proposed cuts: “It is the services that the trust believes need to be located in a full district general hospital.”
She added: “The trust’s proposals for the future of services at Bridlington Hospital have been considered by the IRP, which has passed its recommendations to the Secretary of State for Health. It would be inappropriate for us to comment whilst we are awaiting his decision.”
The IRP recently approved plans to relocate the maternity services dealing with births from Bridlington to Scarborough next year, but the spokeswoman stressed that the Bridlington maternity unit would not close and would still offer pre- and postnatal services.
Copyright PA Business 2008
Independent Reconfiguration Panel
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“The depth of skill attained throughout many years of dedicated, sympathetic work, will be a serious loss, and appears not to exhibit the least concern for the Bridlington population of some 30 thousand souls. We believe the Management to be dangerously flawed, and regret that deaf ears have been turned toward the public.” – Mr & Mrs KW Nielsen, Yorkshire, UK
