PLANS to revamp services at a hospital used by thousands of people in the Selby area will be debated at a public meeting next week.

York Community Health Council has called the meeting in Eggborough Village Hall at 7pm on Wednesday, February 11, to discuss a threat to the future of Pontefract General Hospital. About 18,000 people in an area stretching from Sherburn-in-Elmet and South Milford to Kellington and Eggborough regard it as their "local" hospital. Many others from Selby itself are referred there by their general practitioners.

Wakefield Health Authority, which also runs Pinderfields Hospital, has unveiled proposals to close or reduce the hours of operation of one of its accident & emergency units.

It also intends to shake up day surgery; children's services; elderly care; maternity services; and ear, nose and throat.

Selby district councillor John McCartney said he was "shocked" to discover that Wakefield Health Authority had not informed York CHC about its proposals.

He claims people will die if the accident & emergency unit at Pontefract is closed, as patients will face long journeys to Pinderfields in Wakefield or to Scunthorpe, Doncaster or York.

Coun McCartney has written to every household in his Eggborough ward and delivered copies of a questionnaire produced by Wakefield CHC.

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