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Maternity and Paediatric Services

Answer

The Secretary of State received referrals affecting maternity and paediatric services in Teesside from the joint overview scrutiny committee (JOSC) chaired by the Middlesbrough borough council covering the local authorities of Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton, Hartlepool, North Yorkshire and Durham on 7 July 2006 and the Stockton overview and scrutiny committee (OSC) on 3 July 2006. In addition, Hartlepool borough council’s adult and community services and health scrutiny forum also wrote to her on the same subject on 31 July.Both the OSCs and the JOSC respectively stated that they felt that the proposals to reconfigure maternity services were not in the best interests of the local population.The views expressed in each of the referrals was fully taken into consideration in the Secretary of State’s request to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP) to undertake a review of maternity and paediatric services in Teesside.For the JOSC, the rationale is to retain a consultant-led maternity and paediatric service on both the North Tees and Hartlepool hospital sites. For the Stockton OSC, the principle of centralisation of these services on to one site was accepted, with a view that this could only be based at North Tees (Stockton). The Hartlepool borough council supported centralisation of these services on one site with a view that these could only be based at Hartlepool.The advice from the local NHS (the North East Strategic Health Authority) was that the two issues of centralisation and location of services needed recognition and resolution. The strategic health authority's view is that centralisation of consultant-led services to form one service within the trust is essential, and two separate consultant-led services as advocated by the JOSC are unsustainable. The issue is therefore one of where to locate these services.In light of the differing views expressed by the local OSCs to her, the Secretary of State wrote to the IRP asking them for their advice on 22 September 2006. A copy of this letter has been placed in the Library.The IRP will submit their report to the Secretary of State no later than 18 December 2006.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

451 c173-4W; 93886

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Maternity services Tees Valley Paediatrics

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk