In February I attended a public consultation on the proposals for Pontefract Hospital. At the meeting was John Parkes CX of the Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Toby Lewis Director of policy performance and modernisations, Dr. David Dawson, Medical Director of Mid-Yorkshire NHS Trust and Mike Grady Eastern Wakefield Primary Care Trust.

John Parkes advised us that an outline business case has been produced and key decisions on the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), will be taken by the NHS Trust Board in mid-March 2006.

A NHS Trust wide strategy is being developed to include Pontefract, Wakefield and Dewsbury. Clayton Hospital will close in 2010.

The vast majority of services currently provided at Pontefract, including a consultant led 24-hour Accident and Emergency Department will remain there. Short stay and Day case surgery will stay at Pontefract with emergency surgery being carried out at Pinderfields as at present. A specialist maternity unit will be created at Pinderfields and complex births will take place there, with a midwife led service at Pontefract offering choice to residents.

Renal dialysis could be brought into Pontefract from Leeds and Clayton, MRI scanning will be available on site along with improved access to endoscopy, bronchoscopy and radiology, and there will be a dedicated rehabilitation service.

The new £50 million Pontefract Hospital will have pedestrian access from Southgate, and four of the existing wards on the north side of the hospital will be retained.

In planning services and bed numbers, the Trust have looked at a profile of the area which includes, population, morbidity, community care, more use of clinics and homecare, and improvements in care and technology which has reduced the reliance on numbers of beds. They have invested heavily in GP practices and community nurses, the PCT have invested £2m this year for primary care to avoid people having to go into hospital and for the quality of their care following discharge, especially when hospital stays are now shorter than was previously the case.

The PCT are extending the use of community services year on year and have developed an intermediary care service to care for people within their own homes to give people some independence. £2m will be invested in intermediary care next year.

I have to say I am excited by the proposals for new hospital facilities, something we have needed for a long time. We have been discussing the prospect since "grasping the nettle" in 1999 and it is now becoming a reality.