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by mikebell on 26 June, 2017
At a meeting of North Somerset Council’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Panel, local councillor Mike Bell challenged the decision to introduce an overnight closure of Weston Hospital’s accident and emergency department.
From 4 July, the Accident and Emergency Department will be closed between 10pm and 8am. The decision follows a damning Care Quality Commission inspection report.
During the inspection health watchdog officials found the A&E department in such disarray that they issued a warning notice requiring immediate improvement. Now, in light of what senior medical professionals at the hospital describe as unsafe staffing levels overnight, the A&E department will be closed during the evening from the beginning of July.
At the meeting held on Thursday 22nd June, Councillor Bell spoke out about the “lack of leadership and urgency” in dealing with the situation.
Cllr Bell said: “Like many local residents, I am very concerned about night-time closure and very disappointed by the lack of openness and honesty by Hospital Managers about the situation.
“At the beginning of March, I challenged the Trust Chief Executive about poor Accident and Emergency performance and I was assured that measures were in place to address the situation. But later that same month, the CQC found that the situation remained very concerning.
“An ‘urgent action’ notice was issued to the Trust but by June, we were reassured that there were no plans to close the A&E. Yet, within a matter of days, the Trust announced a ‘temporary’ night-time closure would happen.
“I struggle to understand why information about the parlous state of A&E services was not made available to the public as soon as it was known. If there was a safety risk, why were people not alerted?
“The Trust has defended itself by saying this is not a new situation and that they have struggled to recruit and resource staff for many years. If this is the case, why has the situation been allowed to go on unaddressed?”
Councillor Bell also asked for assurances that additional Ambulance cover would be made available during the night-time closures to ensure that people who need urgent treatment – and who will now have to go to Bristol or Taunton – will not face a wait for an Ambulance as well as the transfer time elsewhere.
1 Comment
A&E closure .
Well done for challenging on that one. I saw Mr Penrose giving details on the T V of his involvement with the problem . Let’s be honest – the details of the problem were obviously kept quiet until after the General Election!