Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust losing £100k a day

A cash-strapped NHS trust has set out plans for a major shake-up of services after revealing it is losing £100,000 a day through inefficiency.

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust has to save £24m by April 2013 but will still end the year with a £26m deficit.

Two options are being considered for its three hospitals, Dewsbury, Pinderfields and Pontefract.

One option involves Dewsbury losing its A&E unit. Both options would see its maternity unit downgraded.

The trust said it would not be in a financial position to gain foundation status, required by the government by 2014, in the "foreseeable future".

Stephen Eames, the trust's interim chief executive, said: "The challenges faced by the trust have been a matter of public concern for many years.

"The discussions we have had with people so far have brought us to the point where we feel we have two options to consider.

"The first looks at doing what we must do to make services clinically safe and sustainable, whilst the second goes further, radically reorganising services across our hospital sites to make the best use of resources."

The first option would involve consolidating children's services and consultant-led maternity services in Wakefield, changes to urgent care at Pontefract and changing the way surgery is organised across the three hospitals.

The second option would involve bringing all emergency and complex services into Pinderfields and increasing the level of planned and diagnostic services at Dewsbury and Pontefract.

Full details of the options can be found on the trust's website.