A NEWSPAPER has to treat with extreme caution documents which bear no name, especially ones which outline grave warnings over the future of such an important institution as the Friarage Hospital at Northallerton. So we considered long and hard before using the information sent to town councillor Jack Dobson, about the potential effect of losing the hospitals vital Intensive Therapy Unit. He is convinced the paper is what it sets out to be.

And when the information appears to come straight from the horses mouth, we believed it had to be put before you the readers to decide for yourselves. There has previously not been clear cut information that the Friarage could end up as a nurse led unit, but this is obviously a real and rising fear according to this document. If that is the case we need to be aware, the reality of the staffing problems will not change anytime soon, news of the training of more potential doctors particularly at the Friarage and other hospitals is welcome but no quick fix.

So if this is a reliable source of information, we applaud the staff, they obviously feel they are putting their necks on the line. And that raises other issues about why they feel they can't put their names to it, maybe their perception of the comeback is far tougher than the reality would be, leaders of the South Tees Trust and the CCG need to bear this in mind, particularly as they also point out the two are too cosy for the CCG to raise the real issues properly.

This is a long process, the Trust is due to report following the latest engagement events as they insist on calling them, with the benefit of this new information, maybe more pertinent questions can be raised on the real potential outcome.