PLANS to move Barnsley Hospital’s haematology inpatient department to Rotherham are set to take a step forward next week when councillors meet to discuss the proposals.

The council’s overview and scrutiny committee met in April to look at plans for a specialist haematology service to be delivered through a combined facility at Rotherham Hospital.

Currently, the service at both hospitals focus on the diagnosis, treatment and management of blood disorders.

Barnsley Hospital is deemed to provide care at a ‘moderate’ level while the Rotherham service delivers ‘high’ levels of care.

The proposals were put to consultation and a report, which will be discussed at Barnsley Town Hall on Wednesday, states that there was clear approval for the facility to be moved to Rotherham in a joint approach.

It added: “This would provide a unit of sufficient size and scale to allow the concentration and consistent provision of specialist clinical expertise, something that is challenging to achieve across two sites and two teams.

“Whilst the single haematology Inpatient facility will move to Rotherham, all other haematology services (Outpatients, Chemo Day Unit) will continue to be provided locally at Barnsley Hospital.

“The proposed single unit would allow Barnsley patients undergoing treatments for acute myeloma leukaemia and other specialised treatments, currently managed at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (STH), to be repatriated and receive their treatment at Rotherham.

“The establishment of a single inpatient facility will provide a sustainable and centralised base for all Barnsley patients requiring inpatient care, encompassing both elective treatments and emergency admissions.

“This integrated model will serve a combined population of approximately 500,000, thereby facilitating broader access to clinical trials and research programmes.

“These opportunities will support the development and delivery of enhanced treatment regimes.”

Patients from Barnsley are set to receive treatment at Rotherham Hospital from August 2026.

The report added: “The board of directors have approved the capital funding required to deliver the necessary building work to increase the bed capacity at Rotherham to accept Barnsley inpatients.

“Following the capital funding approval, a successful bid was made and subsequently awarded through the estates safety fund.

“The building work is scheduled to start in February 2026 and is currently scheduled to be completed by the end of July 2026.

“Only once the building work is complete, can the process of admitting Barnsley haematology patients into the combined inpatient facility at Rotherham begin.

“The currently anticipated timeframe for this is August 2026.”

It’s anticipated that travel arrangements for patients will not be impacted negatively.

“It is important to note that patients requiring transfer to Rotherham will be acutely unwell and will travel by ambulance.

“For elective procedure patients who require transport, support can be offered via the patient transport service.

“Therefore, the travel impacts will be predominantly to families and carers, and not the patients.”