Future of Scarborough Hospital discussed at confidential meeting

After York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust announced last month that there would be a review of acute services at the town’s hospital, rumours of cuts to departments such as A&E and maternity had started to spread, sparking anger and fear among thousands of residents and health workers.

However, days after the Trust and the local Clinical Commissioning Group were faced with people’s frustration at two tumultuous public meetings, Chief Executive Mike Proctor gave his reassurance that key services will be protected.

The Scarborough News understands that a confidential meeting was held at the end of last week. This involved Sue Symington, Chair of the Trust, Scarborough Business Ambassadors, MP Robert Goodwill and a group of retired consultants.

Scarborough and Whitby MP Mr Goodwill said: “The meeting took place confidentially on Friday. We agreed that it would not be publicly broadcast so that we could speak candidly about the future of Scarborough Hospital.

“On Wednesday last week I also had an half an hour phone call with Mike Proctor and Mike Keaney [a non-executive director of the Trust]. It was very useful and reassuring.

“The point I made during both conversations was that those two public meetings would leave them in no doubt about the commitment of the people in Scarborough to protect services at their local hospital.

“Whilst the original report from McKinsey was looking at all the options, reducing A&E, maternity, the paediatric ward, I was assured that those options were not on the table.”

The MP also explained how Scarborough Hospital now falls into a particular category, that of “unavoidably small hospitals”, which acknowledges the need to safeguard hospital facilities serving communities in remote areas of the country.

Brian Davison, a director of the town’s Business Ambassadors, was also present at the meeting to represent the views of local residents.

He said: “It was very positive to get an engagement and it was particularly good to see the Chair of the Trust showing an interest and coming along.

“We will engage again with them in the coming weeks to make sure that the Trust respect their commitment to provide a quality healthcare service. Time will tell as to whether or not services are maintained to the level that we require but for now we just have to wait and give them time to see where they’ll go with the review.”