Weston A&E Closures overnight
Listening to your feedback
The Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group’s Governing Body will consider the proposals following the Healthy Weston public consultation.
The consultation which ran from February 14th – June 14th 2019. The recommendation to permanently close Weston’s A&E overnight has been put forward even though this option was not supported by the public with seven out of ten people against it.
Members of the public will be able to ask questions at the start of BNSSG’s Governing Body meeting, taking place at 1.30pm at the Winter Gardens, in Weston.
Dr Martin Jones, Medical Director at BNSSG CCG, said:
“If agreed, these proposals would ensure that Weston Hospital is better able to achieve national clinical quality standards, as well as attract and retain the staff it needs. That means a better local service for patients and the public.”
There were more than 2, 300 responses to the public consultation, representing more than 3, 000 people.
What was discussed?
8 in 10 recognised the need to change the way services are delivered.
The proposals, designed to improve safety, quality and sustainability, are backed by senior doctors and clinicians across the area, including the Hospital Consultants’ Body and a key group of local GPs. The Boards of Weston Area Health NHS Trust and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust have also expressed their support.
The proposals mean:
- A&E at Weston Hospital would be open from 8am to 10pm, seven days a week.
- 24/7 urgent care access would be bolstered by improved GP services and an increase in the number of hospital admissions being made directly onto wards overnight – bypassing the need for A&E altogether.
The original proposals were designed to address a series of significant challenges, including quality and safety at the hospital, changing health needs of the population and significant variations in care. They have been further refined with senior doctors and assured by national regulators as well as a regional group of independent clinical experts.
The additional recommendations are:
- To make specialist children’s urgent care provision available 7 days a week instead of 5, and extend the mid-week opening hours at the Seashore Centre to match those of A&E. This would mean around 1,100 more children in need of emergency care being treated at Weston Hospital each year; and a further 570 receiving their planned care at Weston instead of travelling further afield.
- Continue to provide emergency surgery at Weston Hospital seven days a week, closing theatres from 8pm-8am. Patients needing emergency surgery overnight would be stabilised at Weston and transferred to neighbouring specialist hospitals for treatment, affecting around 80 people a year.
- Continue to provide up to Level 3 critical care for people who need single organ support at Weston Hospital. People requiring critical care for two or more organs at Level 2 or 3 – or people who would benefit from specialist clinical services – would be transferred to Bristol for treatment then brought back to Weston to continue their recovery.
As a result of the consultation process, a dedicated transfer team would be set up to support this change, which is expected to affect around 130 people a year. The developments would be supported by a raft of wider improvements already in progress. These include the introduction of a new frailty service to meet the needs of the area’s growing population of older people, strengthened primary care, and a mental health crisis and recovery centre in central Weston which will open in early 2020.
You can read the full Decision-Making Business Case for Healthy Weston at our website here
