Dunston Hill Hospital Closure

On Tuesday I attended a meeting of Gateshead Council's health scrutiny committee to discuss the proposed closure of Dunston Hill Hospital. Sites for health facilities can come and go. Sometimes old sites need to be closed and services moved elsewhere. That is all part and parcel of a health service that has to evolve constantly to reflect current and changing health needs. So no individual site can be regarded as sacrosanct. However, when a site is proposed for closure, it is reasonable for the consultation exercise to demonstrate what will happen to the services that are affected, particularly which new sites from which they will operate or what will be put in their place if the actual services are not to continue.

But this does not appear to be happening with the consultation over the closure of Dunston Hill Hospital. Instead, some of  the services may be transferred to Bensham Hospital, but there were lots of "could" and "maybe" descriptions in explaining the move and it was unclear as to whether any premises are available in Bensham. Other services will be "temporarily suspended" while the NHS Trust works out what on earth to do with them.

This is just not good enough. We need a clear picture of what is to happen to the services. We are not getting that from the consultation.

But why the rush to close Dunston Hill? It turns out there is interest in buying the site from a house builder and they want access to it by 1st November. So for the first time in my life, I've seen a health consultation driven by the needs of a house builder rather than those of patients. This is simpy unacceptable.

The above video is my contribution to the health committees deliberations.