Fresh talks held on future of Bridlington Hospital and its services

Fresh talks have been held to discuss the future of Bridlington Hospital and its services.

A meeting was held between East Riding of Yorkshire Councillors, Bridlington Health Forum, Emma Latimer, Interim Accountable Officer at NHS East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group and Simon Morritt, Chief Executive of York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Bridlington Hospital.

The Councillors say they laid out their concerns and ideas for improvements.

East Riding of Yorkshire Councillor for Bridlington South, Andy Walker, said:

“This was a very positive meeting with a frank exchange of views. We were able to share our concerns as well as our ideas to enhance services needed by local people in Bridlington and Driffield. We made sure that hardship from unreasonable travel for sick patients and their families were heard and understood.

"It's been strongly felt this time, the will to engage and the will to have further meeting to get this sorted. I know we can move forward on it but I don't think there's been this level of effort and this level of achievement before.

"Bridlington Hospital has been in a managed decline for the last 20 years I guess; where services just keep seeming to go away to Malton, York and Scarborough. But, for the first time I feel like we're getting really good traction.

"It's crazy at the moment that lots of residents and staff travel from Bridlington to Scarborough, Malton and York everyday and yet there's a staff shortage at Bridlington. If we can get Bridlington staff and residents to meet each other in Bridlington, then clearly everybody wins."

East Riding of Yorkshire Councillor for Bridlington North, Mike Heslop-Mullens, said:

“This meeting followed several earlier ones including talks with Simon Morritt, Chief Executive Officer for York Teaching Hospital. Mr Morritt agreed that the acute service reviews for the East Coast and Humber areas needed to take “a whole system” approach to make the best use of NHS resources across the area”.

Bridlington Mayor, Liam Dealtry, added:

“It’s crazy that so many NHS staff and patients have to travel from Bridlington to Scarborough every day whilst our wonderful modern Bridlington hospital lies half-empty, wasted and idle. It’s a disgrace.”

East Riding of Yorkshire Councillor for Bridlington South, Tim Norman, said:

"In addition to restoring consultant-led clinics, Bridlington should be the ideal test-bed for digital links to NHS experts. Patients could be seen locally but the doctor or nurse would have a high quality link to the right consultant at the same time. This is not a substitute for face-to-face diagnosis but follow-up consultations could be done in Bridlington with little or no travelling for the patient.

Councillor Barbara Jefferson added:

“It’s so important that the Commissioning Group engages with local communities and their councillors to hear, understand and act on their needs. We are delighted that Emma has revitalised this, bringing fresh enthusiasm and new ideas. We look forward to future discussions with her.”

The group agreed with the commissioner a fresh review of better ways to;

• Firmly link the two Acute Service Reviews to make best use of all NHS resources

• Restore local services and outpatient clinics at Bridlington Hospital

• Fast-track Information Technology in Bridlington for remote access to Consultants

Bridlington Health Forum added:

“It is really fantastic to see local councillors working so hard together for the community. The impact of Covid 19 will result in major service transformation across the NHS and we need to make sure that Bridlington benefits from it.”

Emma Latimer, Interim Accountable Officer NHS East Riding of Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said:

“We took part in a positive meeting last week with Bridlington councillors and the Bridlington Health Forum. This meeting provided an opportunity to talk through the concerns local people have raised with their councillors and also with us directly. As health partners and community representatives, we are committed to looking at what services are needed to support and improve the health and wellbeing of Bridlington residents, and focus on delivering those in a local setting.”

A spokesperson for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said:

“As part of an Acute Care Collaborative with Hull, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole, and Harrogate trusts we have agreed to explore how, as a system, we can best address the backlog of planned operations that all of our trusts are seeing as a result of having to step down routine work in response to Covid-19, and in anticipation of a second wave. This will include looking at our elective sites, including Bridlington Hospital, to see how we might use the capacity we have to best meet the demands we are facing.”