Harrogate District Hospital is set to review its staff policies after the NHS announced plans to give paid leave for miscarriages.
This month, officials at NHS England revealed proposals to offer 10 days paid leave to staff who miscarry in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
The move comes as part of the organisation’s new pregnancy and baby loss policy.
Angela Wilkinson, director of people and culture at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said it already offered support to staff, including paid leave, in the event of losing a baby.
However, she added that the trust would review its policies in light of NHS England’s new guidelines to see what further support it could offer.
She said:
“The health and wellbeing of our colleagues is extremely important to us at HDFT. A miscarriage is a traumatic experience and any colleague who sadly loses a child is treated with care and compassion, and offered the support they need at such a difficult time.
“It is important that we give someone who experiences a miscarriage time to grieve and process what has happened. The policies we have in place at HDFT currently do provide specific support and paid time off in the event of baby loss.
“We will review NHS England’s new pregnancy and baby loss policy to assess how we can further strengthen the support we currently offer those colleagues who sadly experience such a tragedy.”
The move to roll out the policy by NHS England comes after it was first introduced by Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust in May 2023.
The trust, which provides health services in Hull and East Yorkshire, said it implemented the policy as a “compassionate move” for its staff.
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- Harrogate hospital could face six more months of strikes
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Strikes cost Harrogate hospital £1.5m this year
Industrial action has cost the trust which runs Harrogate District Hospital £1.5 million in 2023.
The hospital has been hit by numerous strikes in the last 12 months, with consultants and junior doctors staging walkouts in disputes over pay.
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust said the figure was an “unavoidable cost” as a result of the strikes.
The move comes as NHS England has told hospital trusts to reduce targets for routine care in order to pay for the industrial action.
National health officials have estimated that the 40 days worth of strike action has cost NHS trusts £1 billion.
In a letter signed by Julian Kelly, the chief financial officer for NHS England, and Steve Powis, the national medical director for NHS England, local trusts were told that elective surgery targets would be scaled back.
It said:
“For the remainder of the financial year our agreed priorities are to achieve financial balance, protect patient safety and prioritise emergency performance and capacity, while protecting urgent care, high priority elective and cancer care.”
Currently, Harrogate hospital has 822 people waiting more than 65 weeks for surgery. No patients are waiting longer than 78 weeks.
However, a spokesperson for Harrogate and District NHS Trust, told the Stray Ferret that it does not expect NHS England’s target adjustment to affect its plans to tackle waiting lists.
They said:
“NHS England’s decision to reduce the elective activity target for 2023/24 is not expected to have a significant impact at HDFT.
“At the start of 2023, we had 2,918 patients awaiting surgical treatment who would have waited 65 weeks or longer by the end of March 2024. This number had reduced to 822 patients by November 2023 and we are currently on track to ensure no patient will be waiting beyond 65 weeks by the end of March 2024.
“We will continue to focus on cancer pathways to ensure we are able to get to a diagnosis within 28 days from referral and provide treatment within 62 days.
“HDFT is committed to providing the best possible healthcare for our patients and to ensure they can be seen at the earliest opportunity.”
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Ripon hospital to provide more health checks after £1m award
Ripon Community Hospital has been awarded £1 million to expand the number of health checks and scans.
It means GPs will be able to refer more patients to the hospital for life-saving checks closer to home and be diagnosed for a range of conditions.
The NHS England funding is part of an expansion of community diagnostic services announced by the government.
Ripon Community Hospital will refurbish its X-Ray room and equipment and expand the service to six days a week.
The ultrasound room will be extended and its services expanded to six days a week and a second audiology room will be created, with additional staff, to provide more hearing tests in Ripon.
The funding will also help to create two clinic rooms to offer more frequent blood samples and local access to tests such as spirometry, ambulatory ECG and ambulatory blood pressure.
The hospital on Firby Lane, which is part of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, will have capacity for 27,000 checks a year once services are expanded.
A report by Professor Sir Mike Richards called for a significant increase in community diagnostic services outside of acute hospitals.
Building work will be carried out at the hospital before the extra services can start by the end of this year.
Sue Eddleston, a public governor representing Ripon and outlying villages on the Council of Governors for the Harrogate District Foundation Trust, said she “could not be more delighted” by the news, which she added would benefit Ripon residents.
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NHS writes off £13m in Nightingale hospital beds cost
NHS managers have written off £13 million after beds bought for Nightingale hospitals could not be used for patients on other wards.
The seven Nightingale sites included a facility at Harrogate Convention Centre — which cost £31.6 million to set up and run. However, it didn’t treat a single covid patient.
According to NHS England accounts, the beds bought for the sites were “bespoke beds for field hospitals” and did not meet the requirement for existing hospitals.
The figure also includes storage costs at the facilities.
The accounts say:
“After the closure of the Nightingale hospitals, it was deemed that the beds could not be used in any other existing hospitals as the specifications were not to the current standard as implemented in all hospitals.
“These beds are now subject to renewed plans for redeployment to the new field hospitals.”
The NHS has set up Nightingale surge hubs as part of its response to the Omicron covid variant. However, St James’ University Hospital in Leeds was chosen over Harrogate for a facility.
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- Inquiry reveals Harrogate Nightingale cost £31.6 million
- WATCH: NHS takes down Nightingale hospital in Harrogate
The 500-bed hospital at Harrogate Convention Centre was one of seven Nightingale hospitals set up at the start of the covid pandemic in March 2020. It was dismantled last year.
An inquiry revealed that of its £31.6 million costs, £17 million was spent on building and dismantling works, £10.4 million on running costs and £4.1 million on equipment.
A further £1.1 million was spent on security and around £500,000 on cleaning and food.
Members of West Yorkshire Joint Health Overview Scrutiny Committee launched the inquiry into the hospital after raising questions over why it was not used to treat any covid patients and how it would have been staffed if needed.
The committee concluded that while these questions remain unanswered, the need for the Nightingale hospitals across the UK showed there was insufficient critical care capacity in regular hospitals.