Save Bridlington Hospital

Re: Bridlington Hospital

I am writing to bring to your attention local people’s enormous concern about the future of Bridlington Hospital.

A 17,000+ signature petition was presented to our MP, the Rt Hon Greg Knight recently, indicating how proud Bridlington people are of their hospital. No-one wishes to travel to Scarborough or Hull for their routine treatment.

For your information, Bridlington Hospital was taken over by Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust in 1999. Bridlington has had no capital input since being taken over by the Scarborough Trust. It is a relatively new hospital, being one of the better buildings throughout the Trust and 4 Business Cases were originally promised - a crèche facility, upgrade of Day Case Unit, reopen 28 bedded ward and upgrade the main Theatre. To date, we have no crèche facility even though it forms part of the National Plan, the Day Case Unit has not been upgraded, the Priory Ward remains closed and the Theatre has not been upgraded. Rumour was made that money became available to upgrade the Theatre but that money was sent to Scarborough Hospital.

The Minor Injuries Department closed at night and the Trust says that this was for safety reasons and problems recruiting staff. No capital money has been put into the hospital, therefore, the posts are not attractive and people will not come to Bridlington Hospital whilst it is under threat of closure. Scarborough Trust was already in the red when it took Bridlington Hospital over.

The Trust is currently undergoing change in the management structure as the new Chief Executive defines her structure. No Senior Manager is designated for, or based at, Bridlington Hospital. A Divisional Manager was originally to spend 3 months at a time at Bridlington. However, in practice, this does not happen. The Trust currently has 3 members of Senior Management on suspension with full pay over allegedly falsifying waiting list figures. The falsifying of these figures was recently confirmed and publicised nationally.

The Improve Working Lives Team visited Bridlington Hospital. The Trust failed the IWL and had 4 weeks to rectify the situation. To date, nearly 2 months’ later, there is still no improvement.

The signs within the Hospital are old and have not been updated, although signs at Scarborough Hospital have. There are 2 lifts at the Hospital, one of which has been out of order for the past month even though the Trust was informed the lifts needed upgrading some time ago. The fire alarm system is also out of date which, again, the Trust was informed about.

In February 2002 the Cardiac Monitoring Unit opened, funded by a legacy from a local resident and local fund raising. The Trust is already talking of closing this Unit and moving equipment to Scarborough Hospital.

A recent report by the Department of Health states that smaller hospitals should be utilised and that local people have a right to be treated at their local hospital. In Bridlington, the population at least trebles in size seasonally, due to the holiday industry and these visitors also use the hospital facilities. Both in summer and winter there are problems in reaching Scarborough Hospital; in summer the roads are extremely busy with holiday visitors and during the winter the road is often closed due to bad weather. There are no direct bus routes to Scarborough Hospital and the train station in Scarborough is not within walking distance of the hospital.

A local resident has set up a campaign to ‘Save Bridlington Hospital’. 16,000 local residents signed a petition to keep the hospital open, car stickers have been produced to this effect and are displayed in cars and shops around the town.

Bridlington Hospital currently has 3 full time Physicians based at the hospital. The fourth Consultant is currently on long-term sick leave and the post is being covered by a locum Consultant based at Scarborough Hospital. The Consultants at Bridlington would like to see the continuing of acute medical admissions at Bridlington. They would also like to see an additional 2 Consultants and 2 Trust Grade Doctors placed at Bridlington and the provision of a CT scanner at the High Dependency Unit.

To sum up, the argument by the Trust is that there is not enough money being received from the Government.

I would be most grateful if you would take the time to investigate this matter and I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

We look forward to his reply, watch this space? Keep watching?

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