Councillors to meet with residents over Mid Yorkshire hospital cutbacks
Patients concerned about the proposed changes to hospitals in West Yorkshire are invited to meet with councillors in Dewsbury today.
Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust want to downgrade A and E services, among other proposals, in order to save £24m.
Kirklees Council has formed a joint health overview and scrutiny committee with Wakefield Council to look at the plans. This committee has the power to refer changes to the plans to the Secretary of State for Health if they feel the NHS is acting unfairly or unreasonably.
Kirklees Councillors on the committee will meet with residents and listen to their views at the Walsh Building on Town Hall Way in Dewsbury, between 3pm and 5pm.
Less than half of Mid Yorkshire and Leeds NHS staff would recommend treatment on their wards
Less than half of staff at the Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust and Leeds University Teaching Hospitals Trust say they would recommend treatment on their wards.
Only 41% of staff at Mid Yorkshire and 47% in Leeds said, in an internal NHS survey, that they'd be happy with the standard of care provided if a family or friend needed treatment.
Clerical staff at Pinderfields, Dewsbury and Pontefract hospitals started five days of strike action at midnight over changes to pay and jobs. Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust needs to save 24 million pounds.
Health bosses have decided to push ahead with controversial plans for a major reorganisation of hospital services in West Yorkshire. The Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals Trust plans to cut beds and downgrade services at some hospitals. The cost-cutting plans now go out to public consultation.
Staff working at three hospitals in West Yorkshire are starting a three-day strike in a row over plans to cut jobs and pay.
NHS clerical workers, including medical secretaries, receptionists and clerks, are walking out.
UNISON Regional Organiser Jim Bell said members had been forced to take the action because the management of Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust is refusing to negotiate on their threat to jobs and pay.
On top of the threat to axe 70 jobs, our members are also faced with losing up to £2,700 in pay.
This is at a time when the Trust admits it has spent at least £3 million on private sector consultants.
The product of that vast expenditure was a recommendation to cut £600,000 from their annual budget.
That is why the management wants to inflict brutal cuts to jobs and pay.
Our members rightly think there is no need or justification for these cuts, especially when vast sums of public money are going straight into private consultants' pockets.
– Jim Bell, UNISON regional organiser
The strike will affect the day-to-day running of the hospitals, affecting activities like locating relevant files and administering appointments.
There will be pickets at the affected hospitals to by the workers.
Staff at three hospitals in West Yorkshire went on strike today, fighting plans to cut jobs and pay. Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust says it needs to save twenty four million pounds by April next year. Adam Fowler reports from Wakefield.
NHS staff vote for more strike action Credit: Adam Fowler
Staff from the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust who are UNISON members have unanimously voted for "continued and escalated strike action" at a rally in Wakefield. They walked out in a row over job and pay cuts.
VIDEO: Hospitals running "normal service" as staff strike
As staff walk out from hospitals in Pontefract, Wakefield and Dewsbury in a row over job and pay cuts we speak to Chief Executive of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust Stephen Eames about how services are affected.
