Mid Yorks begins talks on reconfiguration

A statement published this week says: “The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and local NHS commissioners, including GPs and representatives from the Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield Cluster Partnership, are leading discussions on the development of their new Clinical Services Strategy.

“The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust published a range of options in the autumn of 2011 as part of its previous clinical services strategy. Since then the extent of the challenge facing the organisation has become clearer and new, more radical options are now being developed.”

HSJ published an HSJ Local Briefing on the trust and surrounding NHS services in April. It predicted the trust may need to be split in three, with its separate hospitals joining other organisations.

The trust has set a timetable of submitting a business case for change in October, and beginning a 12 week public consultation in January 2013.

The trust’s interim chief executive Stephen Eames said: “We discussed how best to organise emergency and complex care, and more elective and routine care across our three hospitals. We also considered how we can, together with our partners, arrange our services differently to make sure patients receive their care as close to home as possible.

“We began the process of developing a new clinical services strategy last year. Since then the full extent of our financial challenge has become clearer so we are looking at other ways to provide clinically safe services which are also financially sustainable.

“Whilst we have to consider and talk openly about a range of possible options, I must stress that nothing has been decided yet.”