THE leaders of a lengthy and bitter battle to retain children’s and maternity services at a hospital have admitted defeat after being told legal action against the NHS would be risky.
Richmond MP William Hague and Councillor John Blackie, leader of Richmondshire District Council, said that their fight to retain the round-the-clock consultant-led departments at the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, had come to an end.
The council has been advised that its planned judicial review in the High Court over how Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby clinical commissioning group (CCG) decided to launch a midwife-led maternity service and downgrade the hospital’s paediatric department to a short-stay assessment unit, could cost taxpayers up to £500,000.
A council report said: “On the balance of probabilities, there is a realistic chance that the legal action would be unsuccessful.”
Richmondshire District Council, which is set to ratify the decision next week, said that it meant people who have historically used the Friarage hospital would now need to travel further to the James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough or Darlington Memorial Hospital, to receive consultant-led services.
Both James Cook University Hospital and Darlington Memorial Hospital have said they have the capacity to treat hundreds of extra patients from North Yorkshire.
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