In developing the plans

In February and March 2009, we embarked on a two-month period of engagement so that we could understand people’s views and opinions about the current provision of emergency care and our proposals for the future.



This included writing to our 65,000 public members and inviting them to briefing sessions held across Northumberland and North Tyneside. We also met with local authority members, overview and scrutiny committees, local involvement networks (LINks) and other key local groups.

As we wanted to know what members of the public felt about our proposals, we also commissioned independent research which involved 20 focus groups and a face-to-face survey of 2,000 people across Northumberland and North Tyneside.
This helped us to understand people’s needs and priorities and how these varied between different communities. It also allowed us to evaluate people’s responses to the proposals and understand what they saw as the positives and negatives.

In the formal public consultation process 

Following this work, a three-month period of public consultation was launched by our commissioners, NHS North of Tyne, to seek comments from people about our proposals. 

NHS North of Tyne works across three primary care organisations - Northumberland Care Trust, North Tyneside Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Newcastle PCT - and is responsible for making sure that people receive the health care they need when they become ill, have an accident or to help them stay healthy.

The consultation ran until July 28, 2009. During this time, consultation documents were readily available, leaflets were sent to all households in Northumberland and North Tyneside and there was a programme of public meetings and meetings with a range of local groups, including local authorities, parish councils and community and voluntary sector groups across Northumberland, North Tyneside and Newcastle.

The outcome of the public consultation was discussed at a public meeting and the £200 million investment programme approved. For more information please visit www.northoftyne.nhs.uk.

As a neighbour of the site 

Over the last year, we have held meetings with those who live closest to the site to seek their views on how we propose to develop the site we have chosen. These views have been considered in the development of the planning application. 
While there was overall support for the development, there were some areas of concern and we have worked hard to address these. These were:

• Helicopter access - residents were concerned about the location of the helicopter pad. We have, therefore, moved this away from the houses closest to the site and placed this nearer to the hospital entrance. We were also able to reassure residents that the number of landings at the site would be relatively low - so far we have had 31 landings in the Trust in this financial year (since 1 April 2010) - and that the helicopter only flies during daylight hours. 
• Noise - residents were concerned that all 40,000 ambulance arrivals would arrive with blue lights and sirens. We have worked with North East Ambulance Service to clarify procedures and it is estimated that only about 3% of arrivals, or 3 to 4 per day, will be using blue lights and sirens.
• Road access - residents were concerned about the capacity of the road network however a number of improvements to the road layout are planned. These include: the provision of traffic lights (with pedestrian crossings), junction widening, and a new roundabout. These changes will effectively manage the flow of traffic and, at recent discussions with local stakeholders, they have been positively received.