Two district hospitals would stop providing hyper-acute stroke care and reduce access to paediatric surgery under a proposed shake up of services in Yorkshire.
A public consultation recommends Barnsley and Rotherham hospitals no longer provide care in the first 72 hours after a stroke, with centralisation of services in Sheffield, Doncaster and Wakefield.
A second consultation document says surgeons at Barnsley, Rotherham and Chesterfield hospitals would no longer carry out operations on children under general anaesthetic at night, weekends or for children needing an overnight stay.
The consultations, led by the Commissioners Working Together in south Yorkshire, north Derbyshire, Bassetlaw and Wakefield, are against a background of broad agreement that services are no longer sustainable due to specialist staff shortages and concerns over variable access and outcomes.
If the changes to stroke care go ahead, at least 1,200 patients a year are expected to be treated in Doncaster and Sheffield in line with recommended clinical thresholds, before being transferred to local hospitals.
Full story in The HSJ, 6 October 2016