Health officials have confirmed they are on track to reveal their plans for a shake-up of hospital services in the next few months.
The chief executives of Huddersfield and Calderdale’s clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have briefed a joint panel of Kirklees and Calderdale councillors, set up to monitor radical overhaul of health services, which could see one full A&E scrapped or downgraded.
But no mention of the dual threat was revealed to councillors on the Joint Health and Scrutiny Committee..
They were told “loads of stuff was going on” to shape the way services were offered across HRI and Calderdale Royal at Halifax.
Over the past few months clinicians from the two CCGs and the hospital have been hosting workshops to analyse how care could work.
The hospital trust revealed last year that it would prefer to offer emergency and urgent care at HRI only.
Calderdale CCG chief, Dr Matt Walsh, said they were agreed that offering two identical hospitals – including two full A&E departments – was not sustainable.
“Primary and secondary care clinicians see the sense of bringing together emergency care in one place,” he said.
“One of the reasons the hospital is struggling is mainly the lack of manpower required to deliver two A&Es.
“The hospital trust is advocating a model that brings together emergency care.
“But there are questions about the use of the hospital’s estate and resources across the two sites.”
Dr Walsh said all of the health groups involved in any overhaul needed to be able to “stand shoulder to shoulder” in advocating a new way of working before going to public consultation.
That included being confident that any additional travel times were mitigated by improved health outcomes and that the resources were available to make the changes.
He added: “I’m clear in my mind that there’s sound evidence that supports that way of working.”
Clr Andrew Marchington told the CCG chiefs the system needed to be able to cope with any surges in demand.
He said: “One icy day a few years ago, HRI had 200 admissions in six hours with people breaking limbs. The hospital system needs to be robust enough to cope with things like that.”
The CCGs say they hope their final plan will be ready for review by August 20.
It will then be analysed NHS England and Kirklees and Calderdale councils.
Local MPs will also get sight of the document.
Once that hurdle is cleared, the proposals could be revealed to the public, possibly in late September.
A full consultation could begin in October.
