"Those doctors saved my boys" (From The Northern Echo)

"Those doctors saved my boys"

10:31am Monday 6th February 2012 in Northallerton News By Andy Walker

A MOTHER has issued a heartfelt rallying cry to retain threatened services at one of the region’s hospitals, saying it has saved her family “countless times”.

Mother-of-three Heather Woods has two sons – Steven, 12, and ten-year-old Johnny – who both suffer from the blood disorder haemophilia A.

The condition means an increased risk of prolonged bleeding after falls and from cuts, as well as internal injuries.

Both boys need injections every other day and in their younger years, before they could be treated at home, were frequently taken to the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, not far from the family home.

Paediatric services at the hospital may be downgraded, leading to fewer specialist doctors, after a National Clinical Advisory Team (NCAT) report labelled its current level unsustainable and called for it to be switched to outpatient only. The proposal – and the knock-on effect it would have on maternity services – has sparked a wave of protest across the hospital’s catchment area.

Petitions and posters have appeared across the district and a Facebook page has more than 2,600 members.

The protest is the latest example of communities in the region coming together to protect local health services.

Last year, campaigners in Darlington fought an unsuccessful battle to save the stroke unit at the town’s Memorial Hospital, while a similar effort failed to retain 24-hour accident and emergency (A&E) facilities at Bishop Auckland Hospital, in 2009.

Ms Woods described the proposals concerning the Friarage as “outrageous”.

She said: “My sons’ condition can be life-threatening and a trip up the A19 to The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, would put their lives in danger.”

She said the future of the maternity service was equally worrying. “One of my sons was born three-and-a-half weeks early and a breach birth. We could not have got to James Cook, so the Friarage could well have saved both our lives.”

Ms Woods, who also has a nine-monthold daughter, added: “I feel very strongly about what’s happening at the Friarage.

“This proposal is frightening, particularly as a mum. It can’t be allowed to happen – that is why I have posters in my window urging people to sign the petition.”

Hundreds attended a public meeting about the proposal in Northallerton’s Golden Lion hotel and health bosses, who stress that the proposal, while the preferred option, has not been decided upon, plan to hold a long series of consultation meetings between March and June.

Richmondshire District Council leader John Blackie said: “To the parents of a child that has to be an in-patient at the Friarage on a regular basis, the worry of facing up to an hour extra travelling time to James Cook, particularly in an emergency, is going to be very distressing.

“That is just one of the many reasons why we must oppose these proposals.”

Bosses insist the proposals concerning the Friarage are not about saving money, but using what funding is available to invest in quality services.