East Riding: Community hospitals have been given £44.5m in funding after the East Riding failed to make a bid.

The East Riding of Yorkshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) has not yet bid for a share of the £750m earmarked for the nation's hospitals.

Managers at the trust have said they intend to wait for the results of the current public consultation before making a bid.

The consultation into the future of services in the East Riding is set to last until March and calls for changes including removing all of the beds from the county's four community hospitals.

Instead, about 50 NHS beds would be switched to care homes, while 60 would be sited hospitals in Bridlington, Goole and possibly one further location.

Initially, the PCT announced it was going to put in a bid for a share of the money, but held off when the consultation was launched.

Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness told the Mail at the time he was disappointed to hear the region would not be one of the first to bid for the money.

The new funding will be used in community hospitals in Sunderland, Bristol, Gosport and Minehead.

Patients at the hospitals will now have access to medical checks ranging from hearing tests to internal examinations using fibre-optic cameras, as well as day surgery and urgent care units.