That the NHS is a wonderful thing I’m sure we all agree. You stand on a nail, you go to A&E and a have a bit of a wait and then you get seen and sorted and go home. No money changes hands and you’re all safe and well.
What’s not to like. If you’re lucky while you’re waiting to be seen in casualty you may even get the chance to see a young lad with a pan on his head. Or did that sort of thing only happen in The Beano?
Either way, we all love our NHS. Which makes the current proposals to downgrade A&E services in our area even more of an upsetting thing.
Bosses at Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH) and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HRI) are trying to figure out how to save money while improving clinical care.
So you put less in and get more out — that’s never easy. Maybe they could ask consultants to abandon private work and do a shift pattern across seven days?
Joking aside, five proposals have been put forward for the future which include no change; HRI loses its A&E or CRH loses its A&E mitigated by increased specialist care at Holme Valley Memorial Hospital and at Todmorden; downgrading both A&Es and relying on a major unit further afield; or something else.
It may surprise you to hear that I’m no medical expert, but I don’t think no change is an option. If you were really not so bothered why have a consultation?
And as for the wonderful ‘something else’ option – can I suggest a Flying Doctors style service with Acre Street in Lindley converted to an airstrip?
Downgrading both A&Es would be unthinkable. Where on earth would you rely on a major unit?
Pontefract have had hell’s own job staffing theirs, Dewsbury has voted to downgrade theirs and the trust behind Pinderfields in Wakefield seems to be in a continual spiral of the medical equivalent of asking for a pound to put in the meter so the lights don’t go out.
That leaves Leeds — have you ever tried to get to Leeds on the M62?
Ultimately it appears to me that with the downgrading of Dewsbury, Huddersfield is being moved into a position which means it will keep its A&E.
Surely the health people talk to each other. If they don’t, they probably should and if they do, let’s have an adult consultation where we’re in possession of all the facts.
No-one wants to lose any service — remember maternity services with the marches and the Examiner front pages — but what we do need is to understand what options we really have.
Then we can let you know what we think.
There will be lots of unhappy people, but let them be unhappy and part of the process rather than excluded from being part of something that they care deeply about.
Fair play — that’s something else as British as our wonderful NHS.
