PATIENTS from Wharfedale and Aireborough could face a transport nightmare if a proposed centralisation of Leeds' hospitals goes ahead.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals (LTH) NHS Trust is considering - under a wider health review dubbed Making Leeds Better - winding down services at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) and turning St James's into the city's main hospital.

But the North West (Outer) Area Committee voiced strong concerns about the plan when it met in Pool-in-Wharfedale on Monday.

During the public forum one woman with a relative receiving dialysis treatment at LGI pointed out that it was difficult enough to get to that hospital, let alone St James's, using public transport.

And PPI (Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health) Forum for North West Leeds member Maurice Scott, of Guiseley, echoed those fears.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Scott said: "Getting up to St Jimmy's is a major problem now and my concern is not just that people coming from this end of the city will have to try to get transport to get there.

"There's also the length of time it could take.

"If you're going to see a cancer specialist, for example and it takes two or three hours to get there and the same on the way back, it's not going to do your health any good. Patients need to be able to get to a hospital and home again quickly.

"We at the PPI are concerned it looks like most of the services could be moving to St James's. It's early days yet but unless the public find out about this and get active quickly it will all go ahead."

Area committee members agreed to relay their concerns to Leeds Scrutiny Board (Development).

Councillor Barry Anderson (Con, Adel and Wharfedale) said: "I'm sick and tired of trying to get it through that you cannot get from this part of the city to St James's. We don't have a public transport network as it is, never mind trying to get down there from here."

Councillor Brian Cleasby (Lib Dem, Horsforth), a scrutiny board member, said: "From this side of Leeds it's becoming more and more impossible to get to the hospital in time.

"I think a paper ought to go to the Executive Board pointing out the difficulties the health authority, in trying to ease its own problems, are causing to patients."

One service which definitely is going to change at LGI is renal services. But a spokesman for LTH said at least part of the unit would remain at the hospital.

He said: "Welcome Wing has major infrastructure problems that need to be addressed.

"Over the last 12 months we have consulted with kidney patient representatives on more than 20 occasions to talk about the options and listen to any concerns. As a result, our original proposals - to centralise renal services at St James's with a satellite service at Seacroft Hospital - were revised.

"The option favoured by the trust board now includes the re-provision of a ten-bed dialysis unit at the LGI, specifically to address the needs of patients living or working on the LGI side of the city.

"That unit will provide for up to 35 users. Postcode analysis of patients using the service shows this would comfortably satisfy the needs of patients currently travelling from the west/north west of the city."

As for Making Leeds Better (MLB), he said: "Although still in their very early stages, initial plans focus on a single main hospital site at St James's with a reduced role for the LGI and the disposal of some of the outdated Victorian buildings."

He added that 85 per cent of renal patients currently used hospital, rather than public, transport. A full public consultation on the reorganisation is planned for early 2007.