Trust needs to reflect on meaning of service

✒ FOLLOWING the announcement that the managers of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust plan to close Cheltenham General Hospital’s A&E for all “blue light” ambulance cases, I would ask them to consider very carefully the following, entirely plausible scenario:

» After a heavy overnight snowfall ,traffic on the Golden Valley by-pass is at a crawl, partly due to slow or stationary traffic on the M5 while Cleeve Hill is almost impassable due to ice and abandoned cars.

» At 8am an elderly Winchcombe resident starts to clear the snow from his driveway.

» At 8.10am his wife finds him unconscious following a suspected heart attack and dials 999.

» Ambulances are despatched simultaneously from both Cheltenham and Gloucester at 8.17am.

Given that such situations are time critical, can the trust not recognise the Cheltenham vehicle would arrive on scene with the crew commencing treatment and could well be en route to Cheltenham while the Gloucester vehicle was still struggling to get to the scene?

If Cheltenham’s A&E department was no longer in existence the patient`s hospital treatment could be delayed by over an hour which could have serious consequences on his outcome.

Is it not time for the trust’s managers to reflect on the meaning of the letter S in NHS and to retain A&E services in Cheltenham whose population is expanding and is likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future? Name and address supplied

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