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Dewsbury District Hospital intensive care baby unit could face axe
Dewsbury District Hospital looks set to lose its intensive care unit for desperately sick babies.
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Health bosses have backed plans for a shake-up of services at Wakefield and Dewsbury hospitals.
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The plans include creating a specialist intensive care unit for very sick or premature babies at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.
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But that means Dewsbury losing its intensive care unit – which was already the subject of a row last year when it temporarily closed because of staff shortages.
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Under the changes the number of special care cots there, for less sick babies, would be increased.
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But mums who had previously campaigned to keep the intensive care unit at Dewsbury said the move could put babies at risk.
Sarah Fawcett, of Liversedge, started a Facebook group over the issue after her premature baby Isabelle was cared for there.
She said: "I just think they need to think about the people and the babies, rather than the figures and the numbers.
"We have got to put the health of the babies first rather than everything coming together as one.
"To transfer babies that are so poorly is just putting unnecessary lives at risk really."
She added that there were transport issues for families as well.
"I am all for moving forward to get the specialists, but I am not happy it's had to move so far away," she said. "Though Wakefield might be close in miles, for me to get there it is 40 or 50 minutes."
A massive reorganisation of health services is on the cards, with health bosses proposing to create four specialist centres.
One, in Wakefield, would be for complex births and very sick babies, inpatient surgery for children would be in a purpose-built unit in the new Wakefield hospital, emergency trauma surgery would also be at Wakefield and a specialist centre for urology patients would be based at Dewsbury.
As part of the changes, the number of intensive care cots at Wakefield would increase to eight and special care cots at Dewsbury would go up from 11 to 14.
A dedicated neonatal ambulance service would also be created, with health bosses estimating 15 babies from Dewsbury might have to be transferred to Wakefield each year.
A consultation over the plans took place last autumn and now NHS bosses say they have agreed to support the moves but are finalising funding.
A spokesman for NHS Wakefield, NHS Kirklees and Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which are working together on the reorganisation, said: "After reviewing the responses to the consultation, which were collated and analysed by independent researchers, the boards of the three NHS trusts have agreed in principle their support for creating the four specialist centres.
"However, this is dependent upon receiving the necessary funding to develop the proposed specialist centre in Dewsbury.
"We hope to be able to update people shortly."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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