MP Warns Over Cuts to Hospital Services
By Barry Nelson
AN MP has warned health bosses that local hospital accident and emergency services must be retained in any shake-up, after a survey showed strong support from residents.
Bishop Auckland’s MP, Helen Goodman, said a survey of her constituents indicates that retaining key services at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, including the accident and emergency department, was a high priority for people.
The survey, which had 535 responses, also showed that 71 per cent wanted to see this year’s [pounds]43m increase in the County Durham NHS healthcare budget spent on improving hospitals.
More than nine out of ten surveyed (93 per cent) wanted to ensure that the emergency department was retained at Bishop Auckland General Hospital.
Since it opened in 2002, the [pounds]67m hospital has lost several of its services to sister hospitals in Darlington and Durham.
Uncertainty about the future of the new hospital led to the setting up of a protest group, called Save Our Hospital.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust recently announced it was carrying out a major review of hospital services.
It aroused concern in Bishop Auckland that their new hospital could face another round of downgrades.
Mrs Goodman said: “We have had an excellent response to this survey, which underlines how much local support there is for retaining high-quality services at Bishop Auckland General.
“The results support the point I have always made – that key services like accident and emergency must be kept at Bishop, and that it is unreasonable to expect people to travel to Darlington Memorial Hospital to use these services.”
Other results showed that 86 per cent wanted to retain x-ray facilities, 80 per cent maternity services, 79 per cent stroke care and 72 per cent elderly care.
A spokesman for the hospital trust said: “We’re pleased to see such strong local support for services at Bishop Auckland and that patients want to be treated there.
“The trust is committed to high-quality services at Bishop and on all of our sites, as long as these can be provided safely and result in good outcomes for patients. We have regular meetings with Ms Goodman, about the challenges and opportunities that our hospitals face.
“We will consider the results of this survey as we work on our plans for future development of our services.”
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