07/11/13

Dr Tom Llewellyn, Clinical Director for Emergency Care, said: “It is really important that we clarify the position of how our Emergency Departments (ED) at Cheltenham General Hospital and Gloucestershire Royal Hospital are operating following recent reports. Any suggestion of a climbdown or U-turn on how care is provided at these sites is widely inaccurate.

“As part of the original consultation which we staged earlier in the year we said we would develop other services at Cheltenham. We said we would develop an admissions pathway for stable medical patients so that people from the east of the county could access more stable, medical care. That’s exactly what we are doing now. As planned we are opening the new assessment unit at Cheltenham on Monday. However, patients with life threatening conditions will continue to be treated at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital at night time.

“It is also important to point out that under the new arrangements patients with minor conditions have always been able to access Cheltenham’s ED 24/7. So ambulances have and should continue to access Cheltenham’s ED after 8pm if patients have a minor, stable condition.

“The night time changes to the Emergency Department at Cheltenham were devised by our clinical staff to provide more robust senior cover and a better and safer service for patients. We are now beginning to see the benefits of these changes in terms of patient outcomes.

“But we shouldn’t forget why we have made these changes. We have been facing increasing pressures as nationally, recruitment into emergency medicine remains extremely challenging and the Trust has not been able to recruit close to the number of recommended doctors in emergency medicine it needs to provide services in the way they were originally set up in the county.

The bringing together of emergency medicine doctors at night time supports early senior assessment and decision making when patients reach hospital and ensures that there is more robust senior medical cover, round the clock. Our focus for now and in the future must be to provide as safe a service as possible with the resources available to us.”