THE closure of an out-of-hours NHS service in Barnard Castle is to be mitigated by offering an outreach programme for the frail and transport for people who will now have to travel further.
The closure of the out-of-hours service at Richardson Hospital will mean patients are sent to Bishop Auckland, or elsewhere, by taxi or a non-emergency ambulance if they are unable to access transport.
But Teesdale’s MP, Helen Goodman, says she is “extremely concerned” .
She said: “The proposal to replace the out-of-hours service with the promise of a taxi greatly concerns me and leaves me with a number of questions.”
In a letter to chiefs, she has listed eight questions on issues including the availability of drivers at peak times, access for disabled patients, who will pay for cleaning if a patient vomits, and whether drivers will be trained in first aid.
Ms Goodman raised concerns about removing services from the rural area because of the ageing population in Teesdale and lack of public transport.
She said 17 per cent of households in the area do not have access to a car, while 21.1 per cent of residents are recorded as having a long-term illness or disability which limits their day-to-day abilities.
She said 72.9 per cent of those claiming Personal Independence Payments are aged 40 to 64, a statistic which she argues “demonstrates an increasing need for local health services down the line” .
Health bosses responsible for shutting the out-of-hours care service at Richardson Hospital last week justified it to Durham County Council’s health scrutiny committee by saying it was under-used and helped only one patient a day.
The scrutiny meeting heard how an extensive consultation took place before a decision was taken to close some primary care hubs in the Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area.
The hubs were set up for patients who need out-of-hours appointments for medical treatment that isn’t urgent.
But committee members questioned how well the service was advertised and if people who dialled the NHS’s 111 number were actually sent to their nearest hub.
Several councillors recounted their own dealings with the NHS 111 phoneline with Cllr Heather Smith describing it as “lamentable” .
CCG director Sarah Burns responded that an investigation had revealed that one in ten of people in the area who dialled 111 had been sent to the wrong hub. The figure went up to 15 per cent in Teesdale and Weardale.
But she said this meant there was “one missed opportunity per week in Barnard Castle” .
She went on to reassure the committee that the closure of the service would not affect the viability of Richardson Hospital.
In response to concerns that lives would be put at risk, Ms Burns reassured people that the service was not for emergencies but minor illnesses and ailments.
“This isn’t a service for people who are accutely unwell,” she added.
Housebound, frail and elderly people in rural areas would be visited in their homes by a doctor or senior district nurse through an outreach programme.
Cllr Smith, who represents the Evenwood ward, told of how she was sent to Willington when she dialled the 111 service because the hub at Bishop Auckland was full. She questioned whether it had the capacity to take on more patients after the closure of the hubs in Teesdale and Weardale.
Cllr Richard Bell, who represents the Barnard Castle West ward, said: “Clearly we don’t support this change.
“I won’t go as far as to say it was set up to fail, but I will go so far as to say it was not set up to succeed.”
He added that in his dealings with the 111 service it was evident that the operators are “clueless as to the geography of Teesdale” .
Scrutiny committee chairman Cllr John Robinson, who had his own bad experiences with the 111 service, concluded: “We got it wrong because Joe Public doesn’t know it is there. We have got to get the hubs publicised.”
The committee agreed the NHS’s consultation had been extensive and welcomed the changes to the transport criteria and the introduction of the outreach programme.
The CCG was told to report back in six months about the impact of the change.
