CONCERNS for the future of a hospital and medical services in a town have heightened after NHS bosses declined to respond to claims they planned to move the services elsewhere, councillors have claimed.

Following a series of claims about future NHS provision in Richmond, Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby CCG has stated “all services within the Richmondshire area will remain as they are” for about three years.

A full council meeting of Richmondshire District Council heard the CCG had secured £317,000 from NHS England to support the production of an outline business case for a new Catterick Integrated Care Campus.

Members claimed the CCG was planning to concentrate NHS services in Catterick Garrison, which would lead to the closure of the 18-bed Friary Hospital in Richmond and fewer GP services.

Councillor Stuart Parsons said: “What we are all being warned by our doctors is that the funding isn’t really for Catterick, it’s to draw everything out of Richmond and the other surrounding areas into Catterick Garrison.”

Gill Collinson, chief nurse at the CGG, said: “The project would aim to promote modern health services across the whole of the Catterick area including the garrison and in support of the wider Richmondshire area.

“It is a unique and complex project which we anticipate will take around three years to plan in detail. In the meantime, all services within the Richmondshire area will remain as they are. There are no set plans as yet.”

Councillor John Blackie said he had been dismayed by the CCG’s response to concerns over NHS services in Richmond.

He said: “I would have been a lot happier if they said the Friary was a wonderful hospital. That is conspicuous by its absence.”