A leading councillor has said consultant doctors rather than patients should move between hospitals.

Kirklees Conservative group leader, Clr Robert Light, has called for consultants to be shared across West Yorkshire hospitals.

His call comes amid Kirklees Conservatives proposals to save hospital services in Huddersfield and Dewsbury.

Health bosses are planning to create bigger specialist centres at Halifax and Wakefield and remove clinical expertise from Huddersfield and Dewsbury.

The move follows NHS guidelines published by Dr Bruce Keogh in 2013 which said lives could be saved by pooling resources in larger specialist units.

But Clr Light said every hospital should retain an A&E.

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He said: “Consultants are very well paid and it should perhaps be they who are moving across the hospitals rather than patients being transported between hospitals.”

The Tories have revealed they believe Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust and Mid Yorkshire Trust should work together to provide services in Kirklees.

Mid Yorkshire – which runs Dewsbury, Pinderfields and Pontefract hospitals – is already two years into its shake-up plan, including the downgrade of emergency care at Dewsbury.

Dewsbury District Hospital
Dewsbury District Hospital

Clr Light said now Huddersfield and Calderdale were going down the same path it was time for a “new model” of hospital care to be developed with a greater level of co-operation between all health resources.

The Conservatives say they want to preserve the current hospitals and see new minor injury units opened in the Holme Valley and Spen Valley.

And Clr Light said the two hospital trusts should share specialist staff and significantly improve communication between their hospitals.

He said: “This proposal will require the trusts to put their organisational procedures to one side and put what is best for Kirklees’ residents first.

“I believe it is achievable but it will require partners to work together and make significant improvements in how they communicate.

“If done properly I believe this would improve service to patients and make savings for each of the trusts.”

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He added: “Logic does not suggest that A&E provision in Calderdale and Huddersfield should be centred in Halifax, and nor does it suggest there should be no A&E provision in Kirklees, the seventh largest metropolitan borough in the country.

“The reason we are in this position is nothing to do with logic, and everything to do with financial mismanagement.

“The trusts need to look beyond their narrow organisational view and put what is best for patients first.

The consequences of each of our hospital trusts having large PFI mortgages are resulting in perverse decisions which I believe are against patients’ interests.

“The council can’t change the PFI contracts as they were set up by the last Labour government.

“However, it can work with the trusts to help them develop an alternative to the present proposals which keeps A&E services based in Kirklees.”