New enhanced approach to surgery at Scarborough Hospital

Patients on the East Coast are to benefit from a new enhanced approach to delivering general surgery, which aims to ensure that residents in Scarborough continue to receive surgical care close to home.

Mr Marco Baroni, Consultant Vascular Surgeon and clinical director for surgery, explained: “It’s well documented that general surgery in Scarborough has been in a fragile position for some time and it has become increasingly difficult to maintain a 24 hour surgical rota on the East Coast.  In the summer of 2018 the departure of two surgeons from Scarborough Hospital exacerbated the situation and since that time York consultant surgeons have been providing cover at Scarborough Hospital, supported by locums.

“Over the past few months surgeons from across the Trust have worked together to develop a solution which seeks to preserve services in Scarborough.  I am pleased that from today (Monday) there will be a rota of 18 general surgeons, all working Trust-wide.  They all have on call commitments, as well as providing planned surgery at both sites with an increased range of sub speciality services.”

Emergency care will continue to be provided at both main sites, with 24/7 consultant on call cover.  The Trust has also been successful in recruiting in recent months, which means there is no longer a reliance on temporary locum staff to provide surgery.

Liz Hill, Care Group Manager added: “This new way of working, developed by our clinicians, offers an enhanced service for patients and maintains general surgery on the East Coast, which is really good news.”

21 October 2019