The long-term future of Weston General Hospital is safe as a result of proposed changes, including treating more older people, health chiefs have promised. Local NHS bosses approved plans on Tuesday (June 7) that would see thousands more routine procedures, including hip, knee and cataract operations, each year, with the aim of reducing inpatient stays and travel distances.
The hospital, which was the subject of a massive campaign in recent years to save the A&E following its overnight closure amid safety concerns, is set to be reconfigured, with two “centres of excellence” – surgery and older people’s care. Along with extra capacity for planned operations, there will be more “same day” emergency care so people can be assessed and treated at Weston General without the need to be admitted to a ward, while the A&E closure from 10pm to 8am, made permanent in 2019, will be maintained.
A small number of extra patients – estimated to be eight per day – arriving by ambulance who need specialist inpatient medical treatment, such as cardiology, diabetes, respiratory and rheumatology, and require a stay longer than 24 hours will be transferred to larger nearby hospitals but could return to complete their stay locally. The expansion of routine surgery – including four extra operating theatres – for departments including orthopaedics, gynaecology and urology means these patients, as well as those whose care is not being switched elsewhere, would remain at Weston.
