CRITICALLY ill patients are being routinely transferred by ambulance from Bassetlaw Hospital to Doncaster under plans to decommission the smaller ICU by stealth, Unite said today . 

According to the union, a director at Doncaster & Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said at a clinical governance meeting that transferring 50 per cent  of level-three patients — those ventilated or with multiple organ failure — would reduce the number of ICU patients at Bassetlaw.

The union warned that the 20-mile transfer risks patient safety and that the plans contradict the trust’s claims that Bassetlaw ICU nurses need to travel to work in Doncaster for at least two months a year or risk being deskilled.