Weston Hospital: Accident and Emergency Departments

(asked on 12th July 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment has been made of the potential effect of the decision to close Weston General Hospital's accident and emergency department at night on the long-term staffing of that department.


Answered by
Philip Dunne Portrait
Philip Dunne
This question was answered on 21st July 2017

Since the Trust Board’s decision temporarily to close Weston General Hospital’s accident and emergency department at night, North Bristol NHS Trust and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) have invested in additional staff shifts in their emergency departments and medical assessment units, and UHB has increased bed numbers. Additional community resources have also been made available in north Somerset to support people in their own homes.

Before the temporary closure, the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Sustainability and Transformation Plan put in place a comprehensive set of actions to mitigate the impact. These included agreeing a bespoke policy whereby patients who are expected to stay in hospital for more than 48 hours are transported back to Weston General Hospital as soon as they are deemed clinically fit enough to travel, in order to reduce the burden on neighbouring hospitals.

Weston General Hospital is working with local general practitioners, community services, social care colleagues and neighbouring hospitals to strengthen, redesign and rebuild urgent and emergency care services in north Somerset. This includes exploring alternative staffing models for its emergency department.

By consolidating the small number of senior medical staff into daytime hours, the Trust is now able to deliver improved staff training and team building. The aim is that leadership will improve, making its emergency department a more attractive place to work. The Trust has already recruited two new consultants to work in its emergency department since the closure was announced.

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