Two thousand join battle to save threatened services at the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton (From The Northern Echo)

Two thousand join battle to save threatened services at the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton

8:50am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in News By Mark Foster

THE battle to save threatened services at a beleaguered regional hospital has moved up a notch with thousands of people pledging their support.

More than 2,000 people have joined a Facebook group to save children’s and maternity services at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, from being downgraded.

Posters and copies of a petition have been placed at many venues across the region to attract the signatures of as many protestors as possible.

Tonight, at 7.30pm, a public meeting will be held in the upper hall of Northallerton’s town hall to discuss the proposals.

The controversy flared after the National Clinical Advisory Team concluded that the Friarage’s in-patient paediatric service was not sutainable and should be converted to an out-patients-only service.

If approved, after a period of public consultation, it would inevitably lead to the downgrading of the hospital’s maternity unit.

That in turn would mean higher-risk expectant mothers or those who need to see a consultant would have to travel to Middlesbrough, Darlington, Harrogate or York.

No decision has been made, but the possibility has already been condemned by local councillors, with Richmondshire leader John Blackie calling it a “black day for the 150,000 people across rural North Yorkshire”.

Grassroots feeling is emerging just as strongly, with membership of the Facebook page – Save Northallerton’s Friarage Hospital’s Children’s and Maternity Services – still growing last night.

One member, dental nurse manager Sarah Cox Cressey said: “I did my training at the Friarage and had my son over three years ago.

“I had an emergency C-section and my son had to go to special care. All the staff were fantastic and I would hate for the maternity services to close.”

Pete Blythe, from Newcastle, wrote: “I was injured at Applegarth primary school aged eight and without the help of the children’s ward at Northallerton Friarage Hospital, my spine would not have healed as well as it did so I could carry on my life and go on to play for Northallerton Rugby Club and Northallerton Football Club.”