New home for regional rehab team

The neuro-rehabilitation service left Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield last week.

It helps people with complex neurological disabilities resulting from stroke, brain injury, multiple sclerosis, spinal paralysis, and various conditions.

The service, which serves a catchment area from East Yorkshire to Todmorden in West Yorkshire, is now based at Dewsbury and District Hospital.

Meanwhile, work began this week on the development of specialist eye services at Dewsbury and Pontefract hospitals.

Centres of excellence for planned bone and joint surgery will developed at the two sites early next year as well.

The changes follow public consultation this summer.

North Kirklees Clinical Commissioning Group’s shadow accountable officer Chris Dowse said: “We are very grateful for all the feedback we had from local residents, patients and other interested parties.

“The majority of people who responded agreed with the case for creating centres of excellence and the value of having expertise in one area. We know that this is important if we’re going to make sure patients get the best possible results from their treatment.”

She said siting the neuro-rehabilitation service alongside Dewsbury’s existing stroke rehabilitation service would create a strong centre with excellent clinical links.

She said: “With more planned orthopaedic surgery taking place in Dewsbury and improved services for patients with eye problems, this is good news locally and confirms the integral role that Dewsbury Hospital continues to play within the Mid Yorkshire area.”

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust interim chief executive Stephen Eames said changes to the services would pave the way for centres of excellence.

“They will improve the efficiency of the services and help us to make much better use of the hospital buildings we have available, particularly Pontefract Hospital which is currently under-used,” he said.

“They are also intended to reduce unplanned transfers of people from the Wakefield district to Dewsbury and improve services for rehabilitation and older people at Dewsbury.

“We were very pleased to see that people mainly reported a very positive experience of using these services but will be looking at any improvements we could make in line with suggestions, including to the appointment system and clinic waiting times.”

Changes to the orthopaedics service mean that Dewsbury will become a major centre for planned inpatient bone and joint surgery, while continuing to offer outpatient appointments. Specialist work, including emergency and children’s surgery, will still take place at Pinderfields.

The opthalmology service which offer surgical and outpatient treatment at Dewsbury will be enhanced to created a centre of excellence.