AN MP has reacted with astonishment after it was revealed a former NHS bigwig who now chairs a private consultancy is being paid to take charge of a review of acute hospital services.

Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said Sir Ian Carruthers appointment was “ridiculous” and said there had already been an “expensive song and dance” in order to determine the shape of future services being delivered from the town’s memorial hospital and elsewhere.

A previous proposal by health chiefs to set up two specialist emergency hospitals – one being Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital and either Darlington Memorial Hospital or North Tees General in Stockton ran into opposition from campaigners and was eventually shelved.

But a shake-up of services as part of the region’s Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) has remained firmly on the agenda, although for now it is expected to spare A&E departments in Darlington and Stockton from potentially being axed, as some have feared.

Sir Ian, who is an OBE, spent 43 years in the NHS and rose up through the ranks to become its acting chief executive in 2006, before going on to take several high profile advisory roles looking at NHS and wider healthcare policy.

He is a former chief executive of the South West Strategic Health Authority and currently chairman of the consultancy 2020 Delivery.

It is hoped that having published several papers on improving the NHS he can provide an authoritative view on clinical services in the region with the aim of completing his work by November.

In a statement, Alan Foster, who is leading the STP process, said Sir Ian had been commissioned by the chief executive officers of County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, North Tees and Hartlepool Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

He said: “The scope of his work will include facilitating joint working arrangements across trusts and exploring opportunities for greater cohesion and alignment between trusts, to ensure the delivery of improved services and operational efficiencies across Durham, Darlington, Tees and Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby, as a contribution to wider health economy improvement.

“Sir Ian is a former senior NHS leader who will bring extensive experience of health systems to this work.”

After being told of Sir Ian’s appointment, Mrs Chapman said: “This is ridiculous. We have just been through five years of a very expensive song and dance where services were uncertain and staff did not know if they would be kept in post.

“To now want to embark on the whole thing again, albeit under a different name would be laughable if it were not so serious.

“Get a grip – do they really need for somebody else to come in and tell them what changes to make?

“The data is there, they already know which services they can reconfigure to improve outcomes for patients.

“What are they going to find out they don’t already know? What the public detests the most is health managers having an outcome in mind and going through this charade, while spending millions, as we have seen with the Better Health process a couple of years ago.

“Just tell us what changes you would like to make, have a transparent approach and make sure there is evidence there will be a benefit to patients.”

Nobody is going to lose their A&E - NHS chief sets out vision for Tees Valley hospitals

The review will play out against a backdrop of increasing concern over NHS finances.

The Northern Echo recently revealed how the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust recorded a £27m deficit in 2017/18, while neighbouring South Tees remains £6m in the red, despite a recovery programme which has seen it save millions.

Meanwhile, there are fears over the viability of some Clinical Commissioning Groups, which plan and buy NHS services for their local population.

Both South Tees and the Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby CCGs have been placed in special measures after overspending in the last 12 months by £8m and more than £4m respectively.

Despite this Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham, who was recently briefed on the financial black hole facing the North Tees trust, said Sir Ian had to “put patients before accountancy”.

He said: “The cuts made to the NHS in the region and the constant demands from the Government for savings, as well as the crisis in recruitment for many posts has left health bosses constantly reviewing how they can best deliver services across the area.

“I have no doubt that the work commissioned will lead to proposals for specialist services to be provided at fewer hospitals – the shortage of specialist doctors, nurses and other staff and the failure of the government to train sufficient NHS staff would appear to make that inevitable.

“We will all need to examine any proposals carefully to ensure they will work.

“Patients will worry about this so it is essential that any proposed changes put patients before accountancy and that they get the care they need within reasonable travelling distance.”

Councillor Jim Clark, chairman of North Yorkshire County Council’s health scrutiny committee, said: “I think it is important that Sir Ian Carruthers considers the impact on the people living in North Yorkshire of changes to hospital services and the particular difficulties facing Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby CCG, which has recently been rated "inadequate" and is facing financial challenges that require urgent action

“I am also concerned about the impact of Sir Ian's review on the future of services at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.”

Mr Foster conceded that progress had stalled on agreeing a clinical consensus on hospital services and warned of workforce issues and financial challenges that were getting more critical.

He said Sir Ian “was not a charity” and would be paid a “relatively small amount of money”.