Letters: We need answers on our hospital

Following the collective sigh of relief, in Calderdale at least, after the announcement that Monitor, and the local Clinical Commissioning Groups, are in favour of developing Calderdale Royal Hospital as the local emergency hospital site, local people and their political representatives need to be aware that there are still many causes for concern within the plans as they stand.

Calderdale residents would need to go to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary for more non-emergency investigations and treatments that currently take place.

What exactly is meant by the ‘Emergency Care Centre’ that is planned in Calderdale Royal?

Will it be designed to deal with the same range of serious injuries and acute illnesses as at present, or will there be more conditions requiring blue-light transfer to larger units in Leeds or Wakefield?

How would the A&E Department be modified to cope with the increased number of seriously ill people coming from the combined population of Calderdale and Huddersfield?

Extensive development work both in Halifax and Huddersfield would need to take place. How is the 300 million pounds to do this going to be raised? Will it be in the form of another PFI agreement?

We are well aware that this crazy way of funding public building is one of the main factors driving these proposals, so we shouldn’t be taken in again.

There is planned to be an overall reduction in hospital beds. Looking after people in their own homes is not cheap and requires a lot of investment in highly trained staff to work in the community.

The planning to support this is not included in the published documents.

Public consultation on these plans is starting. Calderdale people need to get answers to these and many other questions before they can be properly reassured.

Colin Hutchinson

Heath Villas, Halifax