Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on Bristol hospitals of the decision to close the accident and emergency department at Weston General Hospital overnight.

NHS Improvement and NHS England are working closely with the local health community to monitor and manage the impact on neighbouring trusts of the temporary overnight closure of the Weston Area Health NHS Trust’s emergency department.

Detailed modelling to evaluate the potential movement of patients to other acute providers overnight both in terms of attendances and admissions was undertaken prior to the decision being taken temporarily to close Weston’s emergency department at night. The situation is being monitored on a daily basis to understand actual patient movement overnight as well as the bed occupancy of each hospital.