A MAJOR shake-up of the area's hospital services could see children's surgery removed from Grimsby – with families having to travel to Hull or Doncaster instead.
Other plans include centralising inpatient ear, nose and throat services in Grimsby – but acute stroke services would be lost to Scunthorpe permanently.
Plans for children's surgery are in the very early stages, but the possibility of scrapping it in Grimsby and Scunthorpe and sending all patients elsewhere is at the top of the proposal list.
A recommendation will be made in October following further discussions, but in the meantime public consultations have been launched to centralise ENT inpatient services at Grimsby and to keep acute stroke services in Scunthorpe, where they are currently temporarily based – a decision that caused outrage among Grimsby patients when it was made last year.
All of the potential changes form part of the Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures review being undertaken by the local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) for North and North East Lincolnshire. Using a scoring system, Grimsby has come out on top as the recommended site to centralise inpatient ENT services.
Doug Flockhart, who sits on the Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures board, said: "During the evaluation, it was considered that doing nothing simply was not an option.
"Grimsby scored higher due to the capacity and staff levels on the site being more appropriate.
"We will now take all four options to public consultation, but highlight option two – centralisation to Grimsby – as the preferred option."
The other options are to do nothing, centralise in Scunthorpe or send inpatients to hospitals other than Scunthorpe and Grimsby.
Meanwhile, hyper-acute stroke services, which have been housed temporarily at Scunthorpe since November, are likely to stay there.
Caroline Briggs, the CCG's director of commissioning, said the Scunthorpe option, which scored significantly higher than others considered, had proved itself in the temporary arrangement.
She said: "There has been an accreditation visit to the site, and while we haven't had the full report, feedback was extremely positive.
"It's now meeting the standards that are expected, and the inspectors' recommendation would be to commission services from Scunthorpe."
The same scoring system also placed the possibility of scrapping local children's surgery in Grimsby and Scunthorpe – sending all patients to hospitals such as Hull and Doncaster – at the top of the proposal list.
The CCG said it currently does not know how many children's services – if any – would be affected, but a spokesman said "a large portion" of such procedures are already sent to Sheffield Children's Hospital and more options will now be explored, including centralising in Grimsby or Scunthorpe, and sending all children's surgery to other hospitals, including Hull and Doncaster.
There is also an option to keep children's surgery at Scunthorpe and Grimsby hospitals – with outside help.
The Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures team will now look at all the options, and consider whether formal consultation is necessary.
Dr Margaret Sanderson, chairwoman of the North Lincolnshire CCG, said the issue of children's surgery needed more time.
She said: "We'll make a recommendation in October, and then decide if we proceed to formal consultation.
"Our proposals are just that – proposals. We are inviting members of the public to give their views and opinions to ensure the end result is a service that meets their needs."
People are now being asked to have their say on the proposals for stroke and ENT services.
Dr Peter Melton, chief clinical officer of North East Lincolnshire's CCG, said: "We have already listened to public opinion and considered a number of important issues raised and discussed these in the consultation document.
"Now is the opportunity for everyone in northern Lincolnshire to get involved again."
The consultation period will last for 13 weeks, finishing in mid-September.
This will include a roadshow bus touring North and North East Lincolnshire, and public meetings will be held from 6pm to 8pm at Grimsby Town Hall on Wednesday, July 16 and 6pm to 8pm at Immingham Civic Centre on Thursday, September 11.HAVE YOUR SAY IN OUR POLL: Can the current NHS structure still support its staff and patients properly?
