Calderdale patients in need of specialist treatment could be sent to Bradford

Calderdale Council’s Adults Health and Social Care Board were discussing proposed changes to alter the service.

Vascular services manage the treatment and care of patients with vascular disease relating to disorders of the arteries, veins and lymphatic system.

The proposal relates to complex vascular in-patient care only – major interventions to restore blood supply to arteries to prevent death and severe disability – and will mean no dedicated vascular beds will be available at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundations Trust, currently supplied at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

Instead beds will be located onsite at Bradford Royal Infirmary alongside existing vascular beds.

As the major centre, services provided at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will stay the same.

Councillor Colin Hutchinson (Lab, Skircoat) said: “The quality of outcomes is the same in all three, there is no problem with the quality.

“The problem is we haven’t been training enough people as surgeons and radiologists to do these procedures. There have been difficulties recruiting them.

“My main concerns are that if we don’t have services from the trust here does that have a knock-on impact on other services that are less viable?” he said.

His own experiences working in the health service was that “bases” were protected from things like shortages of staff and it was the periphery that had them creamed off.

Coun Hutchinson said the reason NHS Commissioning was promoting Bradford as the centre was because the hospital there had a large renal dialysis unit, and surgery can often affect blood supply to the kidneys.

“That’s the key reason,” he said.

Board chair Coun Howard Blagbrough (Con, Brighouse) said it was an issue the board needed to watch and the issue should be kept on the agenda.