HOSPITAL chiefs from across North Yorkshire have met to begin working on an action plan for sharing highly-qualified specialist doctors.

As revealed in the Evening Press two weeks ago, it is the first step towards what could eventually mean the effective 'merger' of hospital trusts like York, Harrogate and Scarborough under a single board of management - though health authority chiefs stress this is only one option they are considering.

Health chiefs say advances in medical science and technology and the drive towards ever greater specialisation by doctors means smaller hospital trusts like those in Northallerton and Scarborough find it difficult to keep up with the latest techniques if working on their own.

The problems are particularly acute in North Yorkshire because it is such a large, rural county.

The latest move would mean that in future, county hospitals working together would develop a 'pool' of specialist doctors in areas like vascular surgery, urology and ear, nose and throat medicine who would travel around the county, running clinics in all the main hospitals.

Junior doctors may also be pooled in a bid to ensure that staff working is smaller hospitals do not have to work such long hours.

The problem is specialists who want to be at the top of their field needed to deal with a certain number of cases a year to keep their hand in. Doctors at small hospitals just do not see enough patients with comparatively rare conditions for that to be possible.

Barrie Fisher, chief executive of North Yorkshire Health Authority, said he had already met with the chief executives of the six health trusts in the county - York, Scarborough, Harrogate, Northallerton, Airedale and the ambulance service - to discuss an action plan for the changes.

He said: "My colleagues in the NHS Trusts in North Yorkshire agree that health services (in the county) have to adapt. Greater collaboration is under discussion because, for example, it seems clear that none of the Trusts can, on their own, provide the full array of specialities expected by patients."

Dr Peter Kennedy, chief executive of York District Hospital, said today greater collaboration between hospitals was inevitable if top quality services were to be maintained on sites throughout the county.

Wherever possible, he said, the changes would mean doctors and medical teams travelling, rather than patients.

He said: "I think we have to go along that path. We have no alternative. We must do it, and do it well."

Graham Saunders, chief executive of Harrogate health care Trust, stressed today the main objective of the exercise was to improve care for patients locally. Management reorganisation would take a back seat, he said.

He told the Evening Press: "Everybody accepts that with increasing sub-specialisation, with highly specialised equipment and with the pressure on junior doctors hours, that hospitals are going to have to work closely together."

Tony Bruce, chief executive of Northallerton Health Trust which runs the Friarage Hospital, added: "What it is going to mean is continued access in future to an increasingly wide range of specialist services which are locally accessible."

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