Linthwaite couple hit out against hospital plans to move parent accommodation

Mar 10 2009 by Anne-Marie Senior, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE PARENTS of a Linthwaite boy facing major heart surgery have hit out against hospital plans to move family accommodation.

Little Joel Bearder was born with a valve defect meaning he will need open heart surgery in years to come.

Now his parents Gaynor and Tony have learned Leeds General Infirmary plans to shift the overnight rooms close to the children’s cardiac unit where 19-month-old Joel will undergo his operation.

Gaynor, 35, of Banks Road, said: “It is appalling. They need to think what they are doing and have some consideration for parents.

“The new rooms could be a 15-minute walk away. When you have a child so sick you need to be nearby.

“What if, God forbid, something happens and you couldn’t get back in time? It is just horrifying.

“I certainly won’t be leaving Joel when he has to go in for his surgery. It’s stressful enough, without all this.”

The move is part of £25m plan to merge children’s services with those at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, so poorly children are not transferred between the two sites.

All care will be centralised at LGI by 2011 and a total of 22 parent rooms will be provided in another hospital wing to replace the 15 currently available on the floor below the children’s cardiac unit.

But the move will mean parents face a walk across the sprawling hospital site to reach the children’s unit.

Gaynor – who spent seven weeks at Joel’s LGI bedside when he was born – said it was unacceptable.