Hospital facing cut in services

A plan has been drawn up to rationalise urology services across North Durham, South Tyneside and Sunderland.

As part of these proposals, the £97m University Hospital of North Durham (UHND) would lose its 24-hour consultant-led service.

Instead, the majority of North Durham patients requiring emergency admission would be cared for at Sunderland Royal Hospital and all patients with complex urological conditions, those with cancer or those requiring further investigation, would be cared for on Wearside.

Patients requiring only minor urological procedures would continue to receive treatment at Durham, while Sunderland would become the hub of a new ten-strong consultant team.

Health bosses are to consider the option of replacing the consultant-led service at UHND with a Monday-to-Friday service run by specialist nurses.

The plan is due to be discussed at the next meeting of County Durham and Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust board at UHND on Wednesday.

In a paper written by the trust's executive director of planning and performance, Louise Robson, she states: "Over a number of years, it has become increasingly clear that smaller units providing urological services find it difficult to recruit and retain clinicians to make services sustainable.

"In addition, recently produced national policy on urological cancer services recommends the need for a critical mass of patients (and therefore a minimum population base) to be able to sustain a high quality urological service."

This is not the first attempt to reform urology services across North Durham and South Tyneside.

In 1994, the Chisholm Report recommended a service based at three sites - Newcastle, Sunderland and Teesside.

Two further reports considered these issues in 2001 and 2002.

An existing Clinical Action Team for urology will provide a focus for planning and discussion, according to the report.

A steering group will also be set up to handle consultation with interested parties.