NHS survey seeks views on next steps to further improve services at Weston General Hospital

This survey is now closed.

The survey asks for people’s views on a recent update on the second and final phase of the Healthy Weston programme. The update sets out the future ambition for three key areas of care – urgent and emergency care, care of older people and planned surgery. The survey runs until midnight on 4 April 2022 and is open to everyone.

Speaking about the survey Dr Andrew Hollowood, Medical Director at Weston General Hospital said, "We have a big ambition for Weston General Hospital to lead the country as a successful small hospital delivering truly joined-up, safe and high-quality services that meet the specific needs of local people, now and in the future. The changes we implemented at Weston General Hospital a couple of years ago have gone some way to achieving this ambition. However, as set out in the 2019 public consultation, there are more opportunities to explore to bring further resilience and stability to Weston General Hospital. We’re asking local people to tell us what they think about our vision for three key areas of care so we can use this to inform the development of more detailed plans for the future."

The NHS describes its ambition for the three areas of care as:

• Ensuring people who come to the emergency department at Weston General Hospital are seen by the right person first time, are treated quickly and have a clear follow-up plan put in place. Most people would be able to go home the same day, while those who require specialist inpatient care will be treated at the most appropriate place, possibly transferring to a larger neighbouring hospital if needed. This includes looking at whether some aspects of emergency care can be better organised across Weston and North Somerset, Somerset, and Bristol as part of a wider network of acute hospitals, each working to their strengths providing efficient, high-quality care. In line with the outcome of the 2019 consultation, urgent and emergency care services will continue to be available at Weston General Hospital 14 hours a day, seven days a week – as is the current provision.
• Making Weston General Hospital, and the place of Weston, a centre of excellence for the care of older people, supporting individuals to remain as independent as possible for as long as possible, with different health and social care professionals with specialist expertise working together to deliver joined-up high-quality care. Further developing the award-winning Geriatric Emergency Medicine Service (GEMS) will ensure Weston General Hospital leads the way in providing dynamic, proactive and responsive services helping older people avoid hospital stays where possible and making any necessary hospital admissions as short as possible. An expanded GEMS, working closely with the primary care-led Care Home Hub, would make Weston-super-Mare a national leader in the care of older people.
• Making the most of the opportunity to increase the amount and type of planned operations and procedures at Weston General Hospital, avoiding travel for local people, offering greater choice and faster treatment. Creating a protected, planned care surgical centre where specialist teams treat patients from across Weston-super-Mare and North Somerset, Somerset, Bristol, and South Gloucestershire will help to address waiting list backlogs. This would also create a centre of excellence for training, attracting new, ambitious health and care staff to the area and providing development opportunities for the existing dedicated and committed workforce at Weston General Hospital.