Major plans have been unveiled for a £300m hospital to be built to serve Huddersfield and Dewsbury.
The new centre, which would have full Accident & Emergency facilities and acute care beds – would be built on a site between Huddersfield and Dewsbury, though no location has yet been revealed.
Kirklees Council has opposed plans to demolish HRI and replace it with a planned care unit, with services centralised at the Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax.
The controversial proposals were sent back to local health chiefs at the clinical commissioning groups by then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Now, Kirklees Council has produced a radical plan to build a brand new hospital – and look at ways the council can put its financial muscle behind a bid to raise the money.
We will bring you all the reaction to the news.
Paula Sherriff remains "sceptical" about plans
Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff says she remains sceptical about the plans to retain a hospital in Huddersfield until she has seen the full proposal.
In a statement released this afternoon, Ms Sherriff added that she was “incredibly proud” of campaigners and would herself continue to fight for local hospital services.
Here is Paula’s full statement:
“I am pleased that NHS England has recognised the need to retain a hospital in Huddersfield. However, I remain cautious about the detail, especially around the Accident and Emergency department until the full proposal is released. We already have a reduced capacity Emergency Department in Dewsbury with patients being diverted to Pinderfields on a daily basis and I am seeking assurance that the offer in Huddersfield would be far more comprehensive than that. “My constituency sits between Dewsbury District Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and I have grave concerns about ambulance travel times if the only available acute emergency treatment is at Wakefield or Halifax. As I have said many times previously, Kirklees is an area with a population of 500,000 and needs a fully staffed, fully functioning Accident and Emergency department to serve its population.
“I am incredibly proud of the HRI campaigners who have shown incredible resolve throughout this fight and I believe that it is testament to their hard work and relentless determination that NHS England have U-turned on their original plans. I look forward to continuing work with them as we seek reassurance that the detail around these proposals properly serves the healthcare needs of our area.
“With regard to the announcement by Kirklees Council yesterday, I believe that NHS England’s new proposals for HRI prove that the fight to protect these vital local services is not over. Given the Conservatives’ refusal to properly fund local government, I am deeply concerned that Kirklees Council’s plan is overly ambitious given the tight constraints imposed on the Council’s finances.”
Hands off HRI demands secretary of state comes to Huddersfield
The group wants the secretary of state making the final decision to come to Huddersfield to meet everyone involved.
They want him to ‘listen to and meet local health professionals, patients and local people’.
They say:
In the meantime we will consult our legal team and assess what impact these developments have on our ongoing legal challenge. If Mr Hancock rubber stamps the CCG/Trust proposal, we will have no option but to take the legal option further.
Kirklees's proposals 'interesting'
Hands Off HRI says Kirklees’ proposals, revealed at 6am today, is ‘a more interesting alternative model which could meet local health needs’.
But they say it needs more detailed consideration, including where the hospital would be located; how it would be staffed; which Trust would oversee it; how would local health services be maintained while the new building was constructed, and what consultation would take place. They said:
This is the first time any statutory body has proposed an alternative model to the Final Business case and does require serious consideration.
We are disappointed it has taken the Council two and a half years to develop such a model but it has the potential to better meet local health needs dependent on a lot further detail.
We trust the Council has the authority and staying power to see this through properly.
Hands off HRI 'disappointed' by response from Calderdale Council
The campaign group believes Calderdale Council has seen the trust/CCG plan and says they have chosen to endorse its plan, which the group has called ‘disappointing’.
They said: “They see some advantage to maintaining full hospital services at Calderdale but this will be at the expense of Huddersfield and will only increase demand on Calderdale Hospital which is already overstretched.
“Our campaign has always maintained that both towns require full hospital services to meet all our health needs and this will remain the case.”
"Independent surveyors' report ignored"
Hands Off HRI have had a surveyors’ report done on the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary building.
They say the report states the building has a long future, for at least another 60 years.
It’s in response to the CCG’s July 2017 report which engineers had discovered the hospital had ‘concrete cancer’ and would need to be demolished in the next 10 years.
No reference to the future of existing HRI
Hands Off HRI’s statement says there is no reference to the future of the existing HRI building.
The group says it ‘implies that the building will be demolished and fall back on the Acre Mill site as a planned care centre’, which they say is totally unacceptable.
Plans described as a "half baked reworking"
The Hands Off HRI group have described the alternative plans submitted to the Health Secretary as a “half baked reworking” of the original proposal to downgrade the hospital.
In a long and lengthy statement issued over the plans last night, the demo group said:
“The CCG and Trusts’ plans are a half baked reworking of the original business case. They claim to be maintaining two A & E’s but in reality, the Huddersfield Centre will be self referring; all emergencies will be redirected to Halifax and all acute and emergency care will be dealt with at Halifax.
“The CCG and Trusts have ignored our independent surveyors report which clearly states the HRI has a long future for at least another 60 years. In reality the CCG and Trusts have laboured for 3 months and produced a warmed through version of their failed business case. This will strengthen our legal case if it becomes necessary.”
The group added that the new plans were “totally unacceptable” and that they would oppose them “all the way”.
Clr Shabir Pandor
“It is vital that the growing population in Kirklees has its health and social care needs properly reflected and planned for.
“As a council, we are unanimous in believing this cannot be left to chance. The original proposals were all about structure, rather than plans designed for people.
“We can’t afford to allow the haemorrhaging of services from both Dewsbury and Huddersfield hospitals as is happening now.
“We have written to the Secretary of State and to NHS England to say that we believe a new hospital in Kirklees will reflect a plan for the district and ensure the best healthcare in the future, whilst retaining services that need to be delivered locally in Huddersfield and Dewsbury.
“I fully acknowledge that there’s much work to do in developing the details in consultation with all stakeholders after we had the assurances and commitment to fully fund local, accessible services from the Secretary of State for Health.”
