A DECISION to halt a vital service at Malton Hospital should be postponed and reviewed, says Ryedale MP John Greenway.

General anaesthetic surgery will end at the hospital on April 1 under plans by health bosses.

Mr Greenway claims the decision does not make sense and will increase patient waiting lists at other hospitals.

"I have written to the chairman of the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust and the chairman of the health authority," he said, following a meeting with local doctors.

"I have also written to the Health Minister, Jacqui Smith, urging that this decision is postponed."

He said the reason for the decision given to local doctors by the trust - that the trust does not have enough anaesthetists to cover Malton Hospital - did not make sense.

"The reason for the decision was given in a letter to the Derwent Practice," he said.

"This was that anaesthetic staffing levels require general anaesthetic operations to be restricted to three sites in order to ensure local cover.

"However, the consultant anaesthetists at Scarborough provide no staff for Malton Hospital in any case.

"It is the local GPs working as clinical assistants who are doing the work of the anaesthetists and surgeons, and I see no reason why they cannot continue," said Mr Greenway.

He said more than 640 patients using Malton Hospital each year stand to lose out.

"They will have to be transferred to other hospitals to be dealt with and it is not fair to expect them to travel," said the MP.

In his letter to the health minister, Mr Greenway has asked for the decision to be reversed.

"Unless this happens, the growing waiting list in the Scarborough area will get worse and this cannot be in the interests of patients or the Government's policy to get waiting lists down," he said.

Updated: 11:23 Tuesday, March 19, 2002