Independent Leader

I am pleased that Derwentside District Council have agreed with partners to fund the surgical day unit at Shotley Bridge Hospital until March 2007.
Although this is a short term measure, it will hopefully give the working group the opporrtunity to review the situation.
The people of Derwentside and the west of Gateshead who have traditionally used Shotley Bridge hospital probably add up to almost 100,000 residents and they all deserve a quality hospital service for many years to come.
I hope this site will not just attract comunity leaders and residents to comment but also the staff who work at Shotley Bridge hospital. Watt Stelling

Once the proposal to close the surgical day unit arose during the Summer many people contacted their local councillors to let it be known that they wanted the day unit to remain at Shotley Bridge and on top of that many were fearful for the other services at the hospital.

We raised these issues with the Acute services trust and asked for a meeting to try and find a way forward. At that meeting the acute trust agreed to continue with the service at the surgical day unit until the end of March next year. To help our hospital services we agreed to pay £25,000 to the trust as a contribution toward the savings they would achieved by the closure. Derwentside Primary Care Trust also agreed to contribute the same amount.

But this only buys us time, so what all of the parties around the table agreed to was a working group to look not only at the future of the surgical day unit but the development opportunities for the hospital itself. That working party which includes Durham County Council and local GPs have now secured monies from the Derwentside LSP to take the next step. Alex Watson