We understand many of you will have questions and concerns around the planned temporary overnight closure of our Emergency Department from the 4th July. Below, we have included a Q&A which we hope provides some reassurances and addresses any questions you might have.
Care Quality Commission (CQC) findings of an inspection
28 February - 2 March 2017
But the CQC found that Emergency and Urgent Care is still a fragile service despite many attempts to keep it running 24/7 because of historic problems with medical (doctor) recruitment.As a result in a report published 14 June of a follow up inspection the CQC have rated Emergency and Urgent Care as inadequate.
What does this mean?
A temporary overnight closure of A&E will give us time to reset and remodel the department and build a safe staffing model for an overnight service once we are confident we can deliver a safe and sustainable service throughout the night.
A&E will be fully staffed and offering a full service from 8:00 and up to 22:00 at night . This is when 80% of our patients use the department.
Why has this happened?
Our A&E has been fragile for several years as a result of our ongoing challenges around medical recruitment and a national shortage of A&E doctors which has made this position worse. We have become heavily reliant on locum and agency workers and the risk of not filling a shift vital to safe patient care is unacceptably high.
Despite significant efforts to recruit and retain specialist staff, we are struggling to put in place the right number of permanent doctors needed to fully staff an A&E team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our particular concern is having sufficient doctors to staff a rota with overnight duties. Currently we have a team supplemented by agency and temporary staff, but this is a fragile arrangement and not a long-term sustainable way to staff a highly specialist A&E team. We need a consistent medical workforce and appropriate staffing levels in A&E overnight to ensure we can run the service safely at night.
Recruiting and retaining medical staff in A&E departments is a national issue, and one that continues to be an ongoing challenge for us as a small hospital in Weston-super-Mare.
Is A&E unsafe currently?
No.While there is no risk to patient safety in the short-term inadequate staffing in the department is not a sustainable position for the safety of our patients or staff. The CQC have told us the situation will become unsafe in the long-term if changes aren’t made.
What if I arrive at A&E but am still waiting for treatment after hours at 22:00 – will I be seen?
Yes. All patients in the A&E department before and up to 22:00 can rest assured that they will be seen and treated by our team of nurses and doctors.
I live in Weston and/or North Somerset. What do I do if myself or a family member needs A&E when it temporarily closes overnight?
During the closure:
Neighbouring hospitals, out-of-hours GPs and the ambulance service will work with our staff to make sure patients can still get seen and treated for urgent and emergency care between the hours of 10pm and 8am once this temporary overnight closure begins on 4 July.
How are other hospitals and the ambulance service expected to cope?
Bristol and Taunton hospitals and the ambulance service are supporting the move. They have robust plans in place to care for our patients.
About 80% of people are seen in A&E between the hours of 8:00 and 22:00 so most people who in fact use the service during the day won’t be affected.
What happens if I’m taken to a Bristol or Taunton hospital?
Patients transferred overnight will be brought back to Weston as soon as they are fit enough to continue their treatment and recovery here, normally in two-three days.
Isn’t this A&E closure by stealth? Are you trying to close the department down for good?
No – that’s not what our patients, staff or our community want. It’s a decision we have to take on grounds of patient safety. We’ve been told by the CQC that our A&E department isn’t stable or safe enough in its current form for patients with our current staffing levels and we cannot ignore that.
A temporary overnight closure gives us time to work with the regional NHS to strengthen and rebuild our emergency care service
Is there any other way, other than the temporary closure of A&E that you can consider?
We’ve tried various approaches to shore up our A&E, including recruiting nurses and doctors internationally, and we’ve also secured a joint clinical A&E role with University Hospital’s Bristol NHS Foundation Trust. However, these approaches won’t provide the stability needed for the here and now.
Last year’s winter saw extreme pressures on our A&E department. While staff responded magnificently to the challenges, the CQC have told us we need to make "significant changes"
If a shortage of doctors is the issue, why can’t you just recruit more?
Unfortunately, a national shortage of medical doctors makes this challenging.
What does this mean for the future of Weston General Hospital – are we at risk of closure?
No – there is absolutely no risk of the hospital closing. All of our partners agree that our hospital is an essential, long-term part of NHS services in the region.
How can you consider closing A&E overnight when Weston’s population is growing?
Our local population continues to grow and age and it’s one of the main reasons why we need to act now. Our A&E department simply isn’t strong enough in its current form. A temporary overnight closure gives us time to work with the regional NHS to strengthen and rebuild our emergency care service so it meets the needs of our growing community.
We are working with our staff, NHS partners, commissioners, regulators, and local communities to develop a long-term solution to these challenges. We need to make sure local people can access safe, high quality urgent and emergency services from wherever they live in North Somerset. A recent public engagement process took place to discuss ideas and possible options around this, and this work will continue over the coming months. Please see www.northsomersetccg.nhs.uk/for further details about how to get involved.