Plans to close 200 hospital beds in Gloucestershire put on hold (From Gazette Series)

Plans to close 200 hospital beds in Gloucestershire put on hold

10:16am Wednesday 10th March 2010 in

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PLANS to close 200 beds at Gloucestershire’s two largest hospitals have been put on hold after county councillors called for a proper consultation to take place.

Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation Trust has agreed to put its efficiency saving plans on ice to carry out a consultation at the request of the county council’s health, community and care overview scrutiny committee.

At an urgent meeting of the committee on Tuesday councillors called for the Trust to postpone the plans, which would see the first 75 beds closed at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital next month.

Andrew Gravells, chairman of the scrutiny committee, said "The committee was unanimous in requesting that the bed closure programme should not proceed until a wider consultation exercise has been carried out right across the county.

"We would like the NHS Trust to speak to patients groups, carers groups and the six MPs about the impact of these closures."

Jan Stubbings, chief executive of NHS Gloucestershire, which commissions healthcare to the Hospitals Trust, said they had agreed that a "further programme of engagement" with local stakeholders should be carried out to assure them the outcome of the changes would deliver high quality care for the public.

"This will include providing assurance on the co-ordination of service changes across all providers that will deliver improved care for patients," she said.

It is not yet clear whether this will put back the intended date of April to start the bed closures as the nature and length of the consultation is yet to be agreed between the Trust and the council.

At the meeting the chief executive of the Hospitals Trust, Dr Frank Harsent, also apologised to councillors for poor communication over the proposals and assured they would be notified of announcements in advance in the future.

Cllr Gravells said he had been embarrassed to tell people he had no idea what was going on following the bed closure announcement because the Hospitals Trust had not told the council anything in advance.

"We need to work out what went wrong and make sure it never happens again," said Cllr Gravells. "It has been a massivebreak down in communication."

To close 200 beds Dr Harsent said the Trust would work towards reducing admissions and lessening the delays in getting people discharged.

"We are told by patients all the time that they like to leave hospital as soon as possible, they do not want to be hanging around waiting to be discharged," he told the committee.

The efficiency proposals are expected to save the Trust between £27 and £30 million.