U-turn Campaign group welcomes surgery decision
PLANS to move surgery from Cheltenham General Hospital to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital have been scrapped.
The proposal would have seen emergency and complex planned general surgery centralised at Gloucester with planned day-case and short-stay surgery centralised at Cheltenham.
But Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust says it will “set aside” the plans after a bid to take the Trust to the High Court was launched in April.
Campaign group Restore Emergency at Cheltenham General (REACH) said “common sense has prevailed”.
The changes would have seen major general surgery - surgery of the gut moved from Cheltenham to Gloucester from September.
The legal challenge, mounted by REACH argued there was a “serious failure of due process” when drawing up the pilot plans.
The decision follows a letter signed by 57 senior medics expressing concerns about the proposals last November. They believed the plan would be “detrimental” to patients from Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, who are treated at Cheltenham General. The Trust, which runs the county’s two main hospital sites, had defended the temporary proposal arguing it would “improve patient safety”.
A trust spokesman said: “The trust has carefully considered the recent challenge to its proposal to pilot changes to the configuration of general surgical services in the county, which are designed to address the growing concerns about the quality and sustainability of the current service. As a result of these deliberations, the trust has concluded it will set aside the intention to implement the proposed pilot scheme.
“The trust remains wholly committed to ensuring residents throughout Gloucestershire have access to high quality surgical services, which meet the national standards laid out and equally, that local people are involved in decisions about local services.”
He continued: “Our resolve to address the original drivers for this proposal remain as strong as ever and all general surgeons accept that the current model of service is not sustainable and must change. “We will therefore continue the work to look at options for the future of general surgical services, working with local people, in preparation for the planned public engagement and consultation later this year.”
Commenting on the decision, a spokesman for REACH said: “We are relieved. Common sense has prevailed, it is the sensible option.
“Our concerns were that we were going to spend a lot of money on a plan not as thought through as it could have been.
“We wanted them to take some time and engage in consultation and work with us and the public, to really ensure we have the right proposal.”
He continued: “The previous plan was not done with enough time, thought and engagement. We are very pleased here and will work with the trust.”
The trust says it will continue to look at other options for the future of the service and will commit to public engagement and consultation later this year.
Cheltenham Borough Councillor Martin Horwood (LD, Leckhampton), a member of the county’s health scrutiny committee, said: “This is very good news and reflects the concerns of those who challenged the trust, as well as those on the health scrutiny committee.
“If this positive development is down to anyone, it’s the 57 doctors who were brave enough to speak out about it. They alerted the public in a way no one else could.”