HEALTH bosses in the East Riding are to face Government over plans to cut urgent care centres in the area.

The area’s CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) is being referred to the Department of Health, after councillors decided they were too worried about the impact of the achanges to let plans go ahead.

On Tuesday, the East Riding council’s health scrutiny committee agreed to ask Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to look at it.

The committee’s chairman Cllr Barbara Hall said the committee had unanimously decided to refer the CCG’s consultation on urgent care services to Mr Hunt.

She added: “While the committee acknowledges there may be good intentions with what the CCG are proposing, there are serious concerns around such areas as what had been predetermined prior to the consultation, modelling assumptions and financial planning, the topography of the East Riding and accessibility to services, level of engagement with Yorkshire Ambulance Service and private sector residential care providers, and the weight given to parts of the consultation feedback.”

They are particularly worried that urgent care centres in Driffield and Withernsea will become “appointment only”, she said, while people in Hornsea will lose their centre altogether.

“It was the view of the committee that these proposals approved last month by East Riding CCG pose a risk to health care provision in the East Riding as a whole and we have been left with no alternative but to make this referral.

“While this decision has not been taken lightly, this has been taken in the best interests of our residents across the entirety of the East Riding.”

The decision has been met with “disappointment” by the health chiefs, who said they were aiming to improve urgent care for people in the East Riding.

The CCG’s Chief Officer Jane Hawkard said: “On balance, we believe more people will have access to an improved urgent care service and the decisions made by our governing body on 21 March are the best for people across the East Riding.

“We are not in a position to comment any further at this time.”