03.08.2011

 

On July 11, the NHS in Gloucestershire received support from the County’s Health, Community and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HCCOSC) for a number of proposals for specialist hospital services to ensure quality, safe services in the future.  

The proposals developed by clinicians and managers included centralising a small number of hospital services to bring specialist staff together on to one site to make services more responsive and efficient for patients.

Hospital clinicians and managers want to ensure that patients can access the full range of specialist skills and services in the county when they need them most and make best use of the resources available.

Following a comprehensive programme of communication and engagement with staff, patients, carers, community partners and the public (Your NHS: Right Care, Right Time, Right Place), HCCOSC members backed the proposals to centralise first outpatient appointments for symptomatic breast care patients at Thirlestaine Court in Cheltenham and emergency paediatric assessment at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

HCCOSC members also supported one site options for a Trauma Unit in Gloucestershire and for specialist hospital based Stroke care services.

 

Emergency paediatric assessment at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust can now confirm that following careful planning and preparation by clinical teams, the centralisation of emergency paediatric assessment will take place this month.

From Wednesday August 10, all emergency paediatric assessments will be carried out at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, with the Paediatric Assessment Unit at Cheltenham General Hospital closing to emergency admissions from 8pm on Tuesday August 9.

This change does not impact on any of the other children’s services currently delivered from the Battledown Children’s area at Cheltenham General Hospital e.g. medical investigations, outpatient services, therapy and day case care (including day surgery) and walk-in attendances at A&E.

Specialty Director for Paediatrics at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Miles Wagstaff said:

“We want to be able to provide the very best service for the children of Gloucestershire. We believe we needed to make changes, because we had an inconsistent service with the paediatric assessment service split across two sites, it was also becoming increasingly difficult to ensure we had appropriately trained staff in both units.”

“This change will allow all children who are acutely unwell to benefit from an expert senior assessment, 24 hours a day, and hopefully prevent them having to stay in hospital. The service will also be more robust and resilient to unexpected fluctuations in demand or staffing levels.”