HEALTH watchdogs have united to fight for the future of children’s service at one of the region’s hospitals.

Officials have held a summit meeting over concerns that a temporary reduction in opening hours at a paediatric unit at Northallerton’s Friarage Hospital could become permanent.

The short-stay assessment unit was only opened last October as a key part of re-assuring the public after the controversial removal of consultant-led children’s and maternity services to Middlesbrough.

It was set up to operate from 10am to 10pm seven days a week but just last month that was cut by 20 hours a week – closing at 8pm on weekdays and 5pm at weekends.

The South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust insisted the cut was temporary and was due to a staffing shortage caused by long-term sickness and vacancies.

The urgent summit was called by the chairman of North Yorkshire’s health scrutiny committee, Cllr Jim Clark, and among those who attended was campaigner – and Richmondshire District Council chairman - Cllr John Blackie together with senior members from the trust and the local clinical commissioning group.

Cllr Clark said: “I do feel the trust’s public statement that the changes were minimal did not acknowledge the impact that the changes will have, particularly at weekends.”

Cllr Blackie said: “We are in the position where we can’t demand the hours to be reinstated immediately as we can’t pull staff from thin air.

“But we must guard against these temporary changes becoming the permanent solution.”

The CCG’s chief clinical officer Dr Vicky Pleydell said they were working with the trust and doing everything possible to resolve the issues.

“It is very important that the service is provided to the level that the CCG has commissioned, although we do appreciate that patient safety and quality of care must be the main priorities,” she said.

Trust chief executive Tricia Hart insisted they were doing everything possible to return to the original opening hours as soon as possible.

However she added: “We are facing a perfect storm in terms of staffing that we could not have predicted – and as our first concern is patient safety we had no viable alternative but to temporarily reduce the opening hours.

“We have tried every avenue to find the consultant cover we need to run this service 12-hours-a-day, but it hasn’t been possible despite all our efforts.

“We are delighted to have recruited to one consultant post and we are advertising for a further post, although if we are successful in attracting suitable candidates any new consultant would be unlikely to start work with us until September.”