Trust chiefs slammed over changes to care

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in the region said it was alarmed that staff at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, were being asked for their views about potential changes to the hospital’s critical care and orthopaedic services.

A spokeswoman for the South Tees trust which manages the Friarage admitted the trust were talking to staff about options, but stressed that the public would be consulted about any proposals.

Jake Turnbull, spokesman for the RCN in the North-East, said: “We understand that the South Tees Trust is currently looking at the service the critical care unit provides at the Friarage and asking staff how they could feel about it going to The James Cook University Hospital, at Middlesbrough, or if some of the critical care beds went into a medical admissions unit.

“If this happened it would effectively mean it was not a full critical care unit.”

Mr Turnbull said his members feared that ten orthopaedic beds could be lost.

Meanwhile, Tom Blenkinsop, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, has criticised what he said were plans to close the eightbed Chaloner ward at Guisborough Community Hospital.

The Chaloner Ward provides palliative, post-operative and respite care for various medical conditions. The ward also has an out-patients suite and a minor injuries unit.

The Labour MP said the potential move by South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was “possibly the precursor to the total closure of the hospital”.

Mr Blenkinsop said if the move went ahead it “could mean the eventual end of the hospital”.

He said: “I do not think the staff and the people of Guisborough will take this lying down.”

Paul Thurland, clinical director of urgent care at the South Tees trust, said: “The trust is currently looking at the best ways of delivering hospital services, now and in the future, in both acute and community settings.”