YORK Hospital could become one of seven hospitals in Yorkshire dedicated to dealing with vascular problems.

Proposals from the region’s primary care trusts (PCTs), would see patients requiring investigations and treatments of arteries outside the chest, directed to hospitals dedicated to that area of complex and emergency care, including York.

A statement from the NHS said it was expected that if the proposals went ahead, ten per cent of patients requiring a vascular operation, about 1,500 a year, would need to travel to another hospital for their surgery.

Chris Welsh, medical director of NHS Yorkshire and Humber, said the changes would benefit patients, and ensure doctors’ skills were at their best.

He said: “The changes we are proposing are based on international evidence of best practice and will ensure everyone in the region receives the very best care available, improving patients’ chances of survival and ensuring all patients have equal access to the latest technologies and treatments. Specialising services at specific hospitals in the region will enable doctors to maintain their expert clinical skills better as they perform more operations regularly.”

A spokeswoman for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said the plans were in very early stages, but the hospital had a history of providing expert vascular services.

Changes in vascular services are also proposed in other hospitals, including Scarborough and mid-Yorkshire, which coincide with the revelation on Thursday that North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust had approached York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to help them meet foundation trust guidelines by 2013.