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Press Release

Unite mobilises to maintain children's services at North Yorkshire hospital

26 January 2012

Unite, the largest union in the country, is backing the campaign to keep the maternity and children's services at 'a sustainable level' at the Friarage Hospital, Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

The future of the paediatric services, which serve a rural population of 120,000, are currently under review after senior doctors raised concerns about the long-term viability of some of the services.

The preferred option favoured by the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for the future of paediatrics is to close all in-patient services, but enhance the emergency and routine outpatient services, increased specialist clinics, and see-and-treat facilities.

Unite regional officer, Martin Wright said: 'Unite wants to work with the trust to ensure a viable and sustainable future not just for children's services, but for the whole hospital which serves a population covering a 1,000 square miles.'

'We also want to work with the local community to mobilise support for the hospital at the start of this 12-month consultation process.'

'About 1,100 staff work at the hospital, which makes it one of the area's biggest employers – and we will do our best to ensure that any reorganisation does not lead to job losses.'

The paediatric service at Friarage has about 1,200 acute admissions a year and 7,000 children attending the A&E unit. There are about 1,200 births annually.

Unite represents pathology staff, pharmacists, estate workers, and speech and language therapists at the hospital, as well as those working in community such as health visitors and community nursery nurses.



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