HEALTH chiefs have revealed the extent to which maternity services at the Friarage Hospital have been under threat due to staffing problems.

But senior staff said solutions had been found and that there was a strong commitment to keeping the services.

Assurances have been offered amid growing concerns about the future of the Northallerton hospital, which has been the subject of a number of letters to the D&S Times.

The maternity department has faced financial and recruitment difficulties due to new European directives, which forced the department to employ five new middle-grade doctors to carry out work formerly done by the equivalent of one and a half full-time employees.

Following consultation with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the five new doctors have now been recruited and are due to start in February.

The doctors will work at both the Friarage and the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, in order to get exposure to a varied caseload.

Fiona Bryce, consultant gynaecologist at the Friarage, said there were some concerns that the staff may not like to travel between the hospitals, but the diversity offered was considered to be an incentive.

The arrangements have been set up in consultation with the Royal College, and will be subject to inspection and approval.

Concern over the future of the hospital was heightened by the 2002 merger of Northallerton and South Tees health trusts.

But Dr Bryce stressed that the merger had saved her department rather than threatened it.

"Any risk the department has faced is not because of the merger with James Cook," she said. "If it hadn't been for the merger it almost definitely would have closed.

"None of us wants to lose maternity services and we are fighting very hard to keep them."

* See: Friarage's future safe: page 5

l Leading article: page 22