Twelve nurses based at Airedale Hospital have been told they have to commute to Wakefield or resign, it has been claimed.

It follows a shake-up in the way out-of-hours medical care is to be provided.

As part of the changes the facility currently staffed by a dozen triage nurses at Airedale Hospital is being shifted to Wakefield.

An employee of the service, who contacted the Keighley News, said she and her colleagues had been told that if they could not commute to Wakefield they would have to resign.

Changes to the existing system were publicised late last year, when Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust (tPCT) revealed it had awarded a contract for urgent care services to Local Care Direct.

From April 1, patients will use a single West Yorkshire telephone number to contact staff who will provide advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This number will be operated by NHS Direct.

A tPCT spokesman said: “As commissioners of the out-of-hours service, we are confident appropriate steps have been taken to protect the employment rights of staff who currently work for Bradford and Airedale teaching PCT Provider Services in the ‘access and assessment’ element of the service. As part of the contractual arrangements for the new service, which starts in April, NHS Direct will liaise with tPCT Provider Services to ensure the transfer of staff.”

The employee who phoned the Keighley News did not want to give her name.

She said: “Staff are being told they’ll either have to transfer to NHS Direct at Wakefield or they’ll have to resign.

“They won’t make us redundant — we’ll just have to resign.

“If you don’t drive how are you supposed to get to Wakefield on a Sunday morning?

“For some of us this could mean the difference between being able to pay our mortgages and not being able to, so our homes are at risk.”

Mike Edmondson, head of acute care development at Bradford and Airedale tPCT, said the changes would affect triage nurses based at Airedale Hospital.

He said the part of the service that has been awarded to Local Care Direct would continue providing GP appointments from Airedale, as well as arranging home visits.

But he added: “As previously mentioned the access and assessment part of the new contract has been awarded to NHS Direct and it expects to host the nurse triage wholly from its headquarters in Wakefield.

“This means that there is no requirement for the additional assessment service provided by the nurses based at Airedale.

“This change will affect the 12 nurses based at Airedale, who have provided an excellent service to date.

“However, as commissioners of the new out of hours contract we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to protect the employment rights of these individuals.”