Save South Tyneside Hospital Campaign Group Have Instructed Expert Lawyers at Irwin Mitchell
A local campaign group has instructed specialist lawyers at Irwin Mitchell as they look to engage in legal action to fight against proposed cuts to NHS services at South Tyneside Hospital.
The Save South Tyneside Hospital Group has sought the help of Yogi Amin and Helen Smith, Public Law specialists Irwin Mitchell, to challenge the legality of the decision taken by the South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust and City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust. The same legal team has successfully helped other campaign groups across the country to save services such as respite centres from closure and is also working with a group to save Huddersfield A&E in Yorkshire.
Following a review by the South Tyneside NHS Trust and City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, a public consultation was held into changes of three key services at South Tyneside Hospital. The consultation closed on 15 October 2017.
The three services included in the public consultation were: urgent and emergency paediatrics, stroke services and maternity and gynaecology.
Yogi Amin, a partner and Head of Public law and Human Rights at Irwin Mitchell, said:
Expert Opinion
“We have been instructed by the South Tyneside Hospital Campaign Group to establish whether the NHS Trust’s decision making has been lawful and whether there are grounds for judicial review of the South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust and City Hospitals Sunderland FT proposals.
“This is obviously a very important issue and one which affects thousands of people’s access to much needed, potentially life-saving local NHS hospital services.” Yogi Amin - Partner and National Head of Public Law and Human Rights
Roger Nettleship, a spokesperson for the campaign group, said: “Our stand is to safeguard the future of South Tyneside Hospital and its acute and emergency services.
“We believe that the proposed changes outlined in the public consultation will be a potential disaster for the people of South Tyneside and Sunderland. This is because access to these acute NHS services will come under pressure by the closure of the services in South Tyneside. Under the current plans many vulnerable people will have to travel many miles, often during emergencies, to access specialist hospital care or to see loved ones in hospital.
“The aim of this plan is likely to leave people in South Tyneside with essentially a rehabilitation hospital, and everyone needing acute health care will have to travel to Sunderland or Newcastle.
“We believe this fundamentally isn’t fair and will impact on vulnerable local people the most. We are crowd funding for support in our campaign. You can support us by visiting https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-south-tyneside-hospital/. ”
The Save South Tyneside Hospital Group Campaign Group is the second such group to instruct Public Law specialists at Irwin Mitchell. Earlier this year, Hands Off HRI, a group established to fight against plans to close the A&E department at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, also instructed Irwin Mitchell in relation to a legal challenge.
In October this year, Irwin Mitchell issued a High Court application for judicial review against Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust plans. Under the plans, the 400-bed hospital would be replaced with a 64-bed “planned care” facility.
Yogi added:
Expert Opinion
“Our involvement with other similar high profile challenges does provide us with strong experience in cases of this nature.
“It also highlights that the concerns over good local access to public health services in the North East are not isolated only to this campaign group. There is a growing trend across the country of people who are beginning to feel worried about losing their local NHS services.” Yogi Amin - Partner and National Head of Public Law and Human Rights
Background
At present both urgent and emergency paediatric services are offered at South Tyneside and Sunderland. Both options given in public consultation propose the removal of a 24 hour paediatric emergency department in South Tyneside.
The proposals are to replace this with either a limited paediatric emergency department at South Tyneside, open from 8am–8pm, or for the development of a nurse-led minor injury service, open 8am – 8pm. The provision of 24 hour emergency paediatric services would relocate to Sunderland.
Until recently, a full range of stroke services including emergency treatment and specialist stroke nurse practitioners were offered in both South Tyneside District Hospital and Sunderland Royal Hospital. Acute stroke services have temporarily been relocated to Sunderland Royal Hospital.
Three options were put to public consultation, all of which involve moving all hyperacute and acute stroke care to Sunderland Royal Hospital. Two of the three options provide for patients to be transferred back to South Tyneside Hospital for in-hospital rehabilitation either three or seven days after initial admission.
At present South Tyneside residents can access maternity and woman’s healthcare services at South Tyneside Hospital including emergency and major planned gynaecological surgery. Until recently maternity services at South Tyneside also included a Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) however this has been suspended with effect from 29 November 2017, with no indication when such services will be recommenced.
Two options were contained within the public consultation, both of which include moving the SCBU service to Sunderland Royal Hospital. One option provides for the development of a free-standing midwifery led unit at South Tyneside Hospital for certain births.
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