Hospital could lose A&E service as part of review

10:30am Wednesday 20th August 2008

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By Barry Nelson »

A LEAKED NHS document suggests that a North-East hospital’s emergency department could be downgraded.

An option being considered by hospital bosses is to close the existing A&E department at Bishop Auckland General Hospital and replace it with a combined new minor injuries unit and medical assessment centre.

The move would mean anyone needing emergency treatment after 10pm would have to go to Darlington Memorial Hospital or the University Hospital of North Durham.

It would also strip the Bishop Auckland hospital of overnight medical cover by senior doctors.

The suggestion was immediately condemned by Councillor Sam Zair, of the Save Our Hospital campaign.

“If this goes ahead it will devastating for the whole area, particularly for the upper dale,” said Coun Zair, who has vowed to oppose closure plans.

The proposal is contained in an internal trust discussion document obtained by The Northern Echo.

The 1,000-bed County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Darlington Memorial Hospital, University Hospital of North Durham and Bishop Auckland General Hospital, is reviewing services for the future.

Save Our Hospital is opposed to any more clinical services being transferred away from Bishop Auckland.

In the leaked document, officials are invited to explore “what the emergency department at Bishop Auckland Hospital would look like” after the move of 24/7 acute medicine to Darlington and Durham City.

The document acknowledges that the current A&E department does not admit major trauma cases or surgical emergencies.

But it states that the unit is “widely accepted as an emergency department by the local population”.

The document discusses whether A&E signs would have be removed from near the Bishop Auckland hospital.

In a statement from the County Durham and Darlington trust, consultant and clinical director Dr Neil Munro said: “Seizing the Future is a review, led by doctors, to make sure our hospitals offer the best care for patients over the next five years.

“Our doctors believe we need to make some changes to do this and to meet national quality standards.

“This paper is one of a range of discussion documents and outlines one of the options under consideration. It contains the views of senior doctors on how to provide high quality safe urgent care at Bishop Auckland, if the hospital became the home for local services and county wide centres of excellence, and acute patients were focused at Darlington and Durham hospitals.”

Deputy chief executive Sue Jacques said: “We have asked our doctors to lead Seizing the Future, so we need to consider carefully what they are saying.