Union Outrage As Hospital Shuts Ward

BRITAIN’S largest trade union has expressed its outrage at the sudden closure of a 29-bed ward at a crisis-hit Yorkshire hospital.

Unite said it had written to the Yorkshire and Humberside Strategic Health Authority highlighting “grave concerns” about the way Bridlington Hospital is being run following the closure of the Kent ward yesterday.

It said it was also concerned about the safety of transferring patients with infections, diarrhoea and vomiting to a clean surgical ward.

Unite regional officer Terry Cunliffe said: “This sudden closure of Kent ward gives us grave concerns. It comes on top of the threatened removal of acute services which the union, along with the local community, have been campaigning to save.

“We had been given assurances by the chief executive that there would not be closures due to staff levels. It appears our warnings about the trust recruitment freeze have been borne out.”

The trust which runs the hospital said the closure was due to a “combination of staff vacancies and current levels of sickness”.

Chief nurse Teresa Fenech said: “Our priority is that we are able to provide a high standard of care for all our patients.”

She added: “This is a temporary measure and we will review the situation regularly.”

The union is supporting a march through the resort on July 26 when campaigners will make a public appeal to protect services at Bridlington. Organiser Mick Pilling, chairman of the Save Bridlington Hospital Campaign Group, said he was “devastated” by the latest development.

The cash-strapped trust will welcome its fifth chief executive in six years when Christine Green takes over in a temporary capacity in two weeks’ time.

(c) 2008 Yorkshire Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.