Changes to hospital services take effect this weekend

Changes to maternity and children's hospital services in Wakefield and North Kirklees will take effect this weekend.

All high risk and complex births will take place at Pinderfields Hospital when it becomes the sole consultant-led maternity unit for the two districts.

Midwife-led birth centres have opened at Pinderfields and Dewsbury and District hospital for births which do not need a consultant present.

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An acute gynaecology and early pregnancy assessment service will be part of the new facilities at Pinderfields.

Neonatal services will also be centralised at Pinderfields, along with inpatient care for children who need to be admitted to hospital.

The children’s assessment unit at Dewsbury will have its opening hours reduced from 24 hours a day to between 10am-10pm daily.

The shake-up will see Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust cease urgent operations at Dewsbury hospital and send all patients who call 999 or arrive in A&E needing emergency surgery to Pinderfields.

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NHS bosses decided to press ahead with the centralisation of acute surgery six months earlier than planned.

From April next year, A&E care will be centralised at a consultant-led emergency department at Pinderfields.

Dewsbury hospital will have an urgent care centre treating minor ailments as critically-ill and injured patients are sent to Wakefield for treatment.