AN MP is calling for empty wards at Wharfedale Hospital to be brought back into use.

Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem, Leeds North West) says the move would relieve pressure on hospitals in Leeds while allowing patients from the Otley area to be treated locally.

He has written to Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust with the proposal and to express his concerns about older people, in particular, who are having to travel into the city for treatment.

Stressing that the call is being backed by the Support Wharfedale Hospital campaign, he said: “It is time the Trust used these two important wards at Wharfedale Hospital, rather than having them stand idle whilst there is a clear need for intermediate care beds in Leeds.

“These two unused wards should be brought into use now to help with additional winter demand.

“It is a constant source of frustration that residents in Otley and the surrounding area, including Wharfedale, Aireborough and north west Leeds, must travel into Leeds to face long waiting times when there is a modern local hospital in the town with unused wards.

“Using these two empty wards would alleviate some of the pressure on St James’s and the LGI, so it makes sense that, with the additional winter demand, Wharfedale Hospital is used to its full potential and supports local residents.”

Councillor Sandy Lay (Lib Dem, Otley & Yeadon), a former senior nurse at the Otley hospital, added: “With increasing numbers of very old, frail and vulnerable patients living in the community we need to start supporting patients to get well and stay well closer to home.

“When residents become unwell it is right and proper that they get that acute care in Leeds, but what cannot be right is when those patients become ‘medically’ well again they are shipped straight out of hospital into their homes and care homes without a period of rehab and respite for those that need it.”

A spokesman for NHS Leeds South and East Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “Leeds City Council and the NHS are currently reviewing the community intermediate care beds service, including the location and a number of options are being considered. An independent assessment of all options is being conducted.”