We wish to clarify the situation with regards to the ward relocations at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital which are currently underway.
What is happening?
A number of wards are being relocated across our two sites.
What will it mean for our two hospitals?
Huddersfield Royal Infirmary is the centre for wards providing acute care for our all our elderly patients.
Calderdale Royal Hospital will be the centre for all cardiac/respiratory care. CRH is already the cardiology centre for the Trust.
Why is it happening?
We used to provide care in two inpatient specialities – cardiac/respiratory care and acute, elderly care - at both our hospitals.
The Royal Colleges of Elderly Medicine and Respiratory Medicine have told us we need to make these services safer for our patients. Spreading a specialist resource over two sites means we cannot provide it in both places 7 days a week, inevitably this reduces our ability to reduce the risk of harm and make improvements in safety.
Many inpatient services are already based on a single site
At HRI the site-specific inpatient services include trauma, complex and acute general surgery, paediatric surgery, acute haematology, acute oncology, Max Facs, urology, interventional radiology and vascular surgery.
At CRH they include obstetric-led maternity, gynaecology, assisted conception, inpatient paediatric medicine and neonates, stroke, interventional cardiology, medical day case unit, some elective inpatient surgical specialties including ENT, orthopaedics, general surgery, breast surgery, and ophthalmology.
Are wards closing?
No. All wards remain in fully in use with patients and staff on them all and will remain so. There will be an increase in the number of beds on the Huddersfield site.
Is this the start of reconfiguration plans?
No. This plan is not linked to the long-term reconfiguration plans. It is a designed to enable us to provide safer care now for our patients as our specialist doctors, nurses and therapists will be based together at one site instead of being split across two sites.
