Amicus say that the future of Bridlington hospital is looking bleak ahead of three potentially critical reports due this month and have requested an urgent meeting with the NHS Trust's Chief Executive ahead of their publication.

The public sector union has waned that the that a Department of Health (DoH) investigation of Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust's £2.9m deficit due to happen this month, an anticipated Health and Safety Executive report and another DoH report on the experience of people working for the Trust, entitled, ‘Improve Our Working Lives', could all serve to threaten the future of the hospital.

Amicus members working at the hospital say they believe the Trusts plan is to run down Bridlington Hospital in favour of Scarborough Hospital and that any critical findings made in the reports could be used to close it.

The union says that the hospital is being run at dangerously low staffing levels in an effort to recoup the overspend and that staff have been reduced to tears in situations where they are left barely able to cope and that staff reporting for shifts at Bridlington hospital are being sent, without notice, 18 miles away to Scarborough hospital.

Amicus' regional officer, Terry Cunliffe, said: “We believe that Bridlington hospital is being deliberately run down and morale among staff there is at rock bottom. Our fear is that, if any one of these upcoming reports are critical, the Trust will use them to close the hospital.

“We have written to the Trust's Chief Executive ahead of those reports to ask for an urgent meeting about the possible implications. I shall be reinforcing the facts that Bridlington needs and deserves a full-time, fully-funded and staffed hospital with a guaranteed future that provides a full-range of care for patients and secure jobs and better working conditions for staff.”

Amicus has already raised concerns that serious cases from the Bridlington area are being referred directly to Scarborough , more than 18 miles away along a slow coastal road and people are being sent back to Bridlington for long recuperation before discharge, resulting in bed-blocking and reducing Bridlington to a community hospital status.

The union says that the Maternity Unit at Bridlington Hospital is in desperate need of an up-grade and that junior doctors at Bridlington are being deprived essential training because of the failure to admit all cases. Amicus says that the Chief Executive of Bridlington hospital has also declined the offer to set up a fund to raise money to donate a CT scanner to Bridlington hospital.

The union organised a protest at the downgrading of Bridlington hospital in July last year. They say a report by the Royal College of Physicians has also highlighted concerns about the ‘running down' of Bridlington hospital. - Ends –

For further information please contact Catherine Bithell in the Amicus press office on 020 7 420 8909 or 07958 473 224

Mick Pilling: 01262 671926 for a statement

E-mail: Mick ….[email protected]

Questions by the Scarborough NHS Healthcare Trust have not been answered; lists were sent well before Christmas.

MP the Rt. Hon. Greg Knight has had no reply?

Press have responded to Trust information but the Trust have yet to responded with answers?

Mick Pilling

• Recruitment seems to have stopped?
• Staff leaving are not replaced? 
• There is a complete BAN on Overtime? 
• Staff working and doing 2 jobs due to staff shortages..
• Staff on escort duties not replaced?
• 28 bed wards under-staff? by at least 2 or more....how long will this scenario continue....only the patients can suffer...we believe
• Gardener short at Bridlington...Not replaced?  This job is part of the yearly budget and has been accounted for!
• Maintenance staff short by 4 who have left...these are not been replaced?
• No gritting in icy condition or snowing.....Safety issue!
• Notices on all doors telling patients and visitor to be cautious when leaving the Bridlington Hospital due to no gritting been done.....safety issue!
• Litter around the hospital grounds looks untidy; no-one to do this job! un-sightly
• 100 nurses; auxiliary; pool & bank staff have been finished at Scarborough 1 week before Xmas they were given 1 week notice?
• Staff are been taken from Bridlington Hospital; Day & Night to work at Scarborough Hospital leaving Bridlington Hospital wards short of staff; will patients suffer by this; of course, you cannot maintain satisfactory  care, fact!
• We firmly believe Parking Charges will be increased very shortly?
• Rumors are nurses will have to pay parking charges in the future....we do-not believe this is in the best interests of all
• No babies born in Bridlington once again; Christmas or New Year; expectant mothers taken to Scarborough 2005/6?
• Any up-grades due at Bridlington Hospital have now been placed on a back-burner; indefinitely?
• Staff at Bridlington Hospital have been told to turn-off lights & heating in a money saving scheme?
• Nurses have been asked to come up with money saving ideas; YES! get ride off some management; your top-heavy!
• Out-side lighting as been turned off around the Hospital in a money saving exercise to save money; putting patients and staff at risk of falling or been mugged! Safety issue!
• CCTV Cameras have still not been repaired; it is now 10 months since the Trust were informed March 2005; letters were sent to the Chief Executive out-lining this problem...it was classed as a safety issue?
• Money raised by the town of Bridlington for a birthing Pool in Bridlington Hospital's Maternity unit as still not surfaced; were is this money people are asking??? 
• Nurses taken from Bridlington hospital to work in Scarborough hospital use Taxi's at a cost to the Tax-payer of £17 to £20 per trip each way; other nurses go by there own transport?
• There is anger in Unions and within the Nursing Community; leaving one hospital to work at another because staff have been laid off is playing Russia-Roulette with patients lives; nurses cannot do too many jobs as there work is dedicated and demanding; corners may be cut; the same standards cannot be met; Lives could be lost!
• Bridlington & District Hospital is called a Community Hospital by the Scarborough NHS Trust; this can only be seen as Down-grading?
• Complaints have already been received about cleanliness on wards at Bridlington Hospital; en-light of the above; we believe this could be a regular occurrence due to extreme staff shortages; introduced by a Trust Hell-Bent on saving money.....Viruses such as MSRA & Clostridium Difficile don't take prisoners...to stamped them out, you must first have the staff to tackle them head-on!  Reducing Staff levels do-not fight the Cleanliness that can be archived by having the right amount of staff in place; we ask the Trust NOT to cut corners! 
• By what the Trust are stating and doing; desperate measure are been taken; lets hope no live are lost or patients suffer un-necessarily.
• Bed-blocking is still the norm at Bridlington
• Patients are been sent home fast in a turn-around to free beds....complaints are been made? 

This information is supplied to you so you the public now how your money is spent, the very money you have paid into the NHS for so many years.