New "mini hospitals" are planned for communities across Hull to carry out minor surgery and operations.

The Mail can exclusively reveal at least three new centres could be built, at a cost of more than £45m.

It is hoped the new facilities will reduce the pressure on Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill hospital in Cottingham.

They would include facilities to allow routine operations and tests such as X-rays to be moved out of hospitals and into communities.

Other surgical work, such as the removal of non-cancerous lumps, will also be provided at the centres. They could also house services such as speech therapy and physiotherapy.

The plans are being spearheaded by Hull Teaching Primary Care Trust, which says it is keen to make services more accessible to patients.

It comes as East Riding of Yorkshire PCT has come under fire for numerous reductions of facilities in community hospitals and new proposals to move beds into private care homes.

Although sites have not yet been confirmed, they are being earmarked to be built in the north, east and west of the city.

Huw Jones, Hull PCT's director of commissioning and service improvement, says they could help relieve the pressure on Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill hospital, which deal with about 250,000 patients a year.

He said it would also help the hospitals cut waiting times for patients and meet Government targets.

He told the Mail: "The aim is to develop more services where people live, giving them quicker assessment

Patients will be referred to the new centres by their own GPs.

The centres will also become bases for mobile testing units fitted with MRI or CT scanners, which can detect brain tumours, but will not offer accident and emergency facilities.

Hull-based development firm the Sewell Group, which has been building a series of new health centres across the city, would build the centres within the next five to 10 years.

Mr Jones said: "We could look at somewhere like Kingswood in north Hull, which would serve Bransholme, Orchard Park and even people in the East Riding, such as Cottingham and Dunswell."

Stephen Greep, chief executive of Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill hospital, welcomed the move.

He said: "The national strategy of the NHS is to provide some services outside of hospitals wherever possible, allowing trusts like ourselves to concentrate on more serious and complex cases.

"We welcome anything which makes NHS services more convenient."

However, Ruth Marsden, chair of the hospital trust Patient and Public Involvement Forum, said she was concerned about how fast the Department of Health was changing services. She said: "These plans are part of a wider mantra by the Department of Health for health care outside hospitals.

"In general, it is not a bad idea, but I have misgivings about the speed of the changes and whether patients will be properly informed and consulted."

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Links

Hull Teaching PCT

www.hullpct.nhs.uk

Sewell Group

www.sewell-group.co.uk