NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group approve Fit for the Future service change resolutions
NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group’s Governing Body has approved a number of resolutions relating to the medium and long term future of some specialist hospital services across the Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal hospital sites.
At their meeting on Thursday 18 March, members gave conscientious consideration to all of the information they were presented with, including the Fit for the Future Decision Making Business Case (DMBC).
The resolutions:
• Acute Medicine (specifically Acute Medical Take):
Centralise the Acute Medical Take at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital
• Emergency General Surgery:
Centralise Emergency General Surgery at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital
• Gastroenterology inpatient services:
Formalise (make permanent) the ‘pilot’ configuration (arrangements) for Gastroenterology inpatient services at Cheltenham General Hospital
• Image Guided Interventional Surgery (IGIS):
Create an Image Guided Interventional Surgery ‘Hub’ at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and a ‘Spoke’ at Cheltenham General Hospital
• Centralise Vascular Surgery at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital
• Trauma and Orthopaedic (T&O) inpatient services:
Formalise (make permanent) the ‘pilot’ configuration (arrangements) for Trauma at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and Orthopaedics at Cheltenham General Hospital
• Planned General Surgery:
Governing Body members also approved a resolution that recommends that further work is done to define a new option to deliver Planned General Surgery across the Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospital sites. Local people and staff will be given the opportunity to be involved in this work.
The Governing Body meeting and consideration of the DMBC followed the consultation review period, where Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the CCG looked in detail at the output of public and staff consultation, the Citizens’ Jury reports and public, staff and stakeholder comments following publication of additional information.
The staff and public consultation was quality assured and has been assessed as ‘good practice’ by The Consultation Institute.
Clinical Chair of NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, Dr Andy Seymour said:
“We know the development of specialist hospital services in the county are of significant importance to patient care and governing body members carefully considered all of the information they were presented with before reaching decisions.
We would like to thank everyone who has participated in the Fit for the Future programme over the course of the last few years, in particular community partners, members of the public and staff who have played such an active role in feeding in their perspectives and views through both the engagement and consultation process and have helped shape local services for the future.”
The implementation of the recommendations will be completed in stages over the next two to three years.
