Welcome to the Save Frenchay Hospital Web Site
Thank you for your interest in our campaign to save Frenchay Hospital . For the last three years we have strenuously campaigned to reverse the decision, taken by local NHS executives, to site a new acute hospital at Southmead.
Currently, Frenchay Hospital with it's A&E facility, serves the population of Bristol , South Gloucestershire, East Bristol and the wider Bristol area extremely well. The hospital is accessible from the M5, M4, M32 and the A4174 ring road. Ease of access means that critically injured patients, particularly victims of motorway accidents, can be rapidly transported to Frenchay's A&E department by emergency ambulances.
Southmead is situated in a densely populated area and ambulances from the motorways will have to slow down to negotiate gridlocked traffic on the Filton Road , which has eight traffic‘hot spots'. Due to the expansion of the Ministry of Defence site and the growth of large companies in Filton, the traffic will greatly increase in future. South Gloucestershire is the fastest growing area in the UK and housing development will further exacerbate the traffic problem.
The Save Frenchay Hospital Group fears that patient lives will be lost if the plan for Southmead is not overturned and to this end, we will continue to fight.
PATIENT SAFETY IS OUR PRIME CONCERN!
In May 2004, two members of the public independently joined a Bristol Health Service Plan (BHSP) Public Involvement Group (PIG) on the Frenchay/Southmead issue. This was one of a number of such groups which were formed to facilitate public involvement on each of the sites affected by the BHSP proposals.
The lead on the BHSP was North Bristol NHS Trust. PIG members were informed that it was necessary to reduce from two hospital sites to one site. They were also informed that the clinicians wanted one although there was no evidence of a comprehensive ballot of staff on the issue.
The BHSP went to a thirteen week public consultation between September to December 2004. This was the minimum time allowed for such a consultation. Leaflets were distributed by the BHSP but no firm proposals or sites were mentioned, just ‘ideas'. The public had no idea of what was proposed and the general public still have no awareness that Frenchay Hospital is to be demolished, under the BHSP proposals.
A Mori opinion poll showed that 47% of the public preferred the Frenchay site for a new acute hospital whilst 29% preferred Southmead. These findings were ignored by NHS executives.
At a decision-making meeting on the 14 th March 2004, NHS Trust executives voted to site a new hospital at Southmead, thereby wiping Frenchay Hospital off the map. In a packed meeting, members of the public vociferously voiced their concerns on the decision.
The two members of the PIG were so dismayed at this outcome that they decided to hold a public meeting and joined forces with another member of the public who had designed a Save Frenchay Hospital website. A public meeting was held at the Greenfield Centre, Winterbourne in May 2005, by courtesy of Winterbourne Parish Council. Three hundred people attended and from the gathering, many people volunteered to join the Save Frenchay Hospital Group.
Since that time the Group has unceasingly challenged and questioned the validity of the BHSP proposals. The Group mounted a petition which gathered 48,000 signatures, 20% of South Gloucestershire 's population, in favour of the Frenchay site for a new acute hospital. This petition was ignored by all levels of the NHS including the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt.
We have taken our protest to North Bristol Trust, South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust, the South West Strategic Health Authority, Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, the Office of Government Commerce, the Director of Public Health, Local Government Office of the South West, the Audit Commission, the Healthcare Commission, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, the Directors of Public Health for two Primary Care Trusts and finally, the Deputy Ombudsman, who is currently considering our documentation and awaiting the outcome of the judicial review.
1. We wish to ensure an equitable distribution of healthcare provision for the entire population of South Gloucestershire, East Bristol, North Bristol , Frenchay and the surrounding areas.
2. We intend to alert the population of South Gloucestershire and the wider Bristol area to the loss of NHS beds which will have a detrimental affect upon our healthcare provision.
3. We believe the removal of the Accident and Emergency department from Frenchay to Southmead will endanger the survival of critically injured patients, due to heavy traffic on the roads leading to Southmead.
4. We aim to be alert to any detrimental changes affecting Frenchay Hospital and to act accordingly.
5. We will safeguard the existing facilities at Frenchay Hospital .
6. We intend to challenge and question North Bristol NHS Trust and South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust whenever decisions are made which compromise patient safety.
7. We are making public the devious way in which the Bristol Health Service Plan has been foisted upon an unsuspecting population and alerting people to the consequences of this wholly unacceptable reconfiguration plan.
New Petition Launched!
Thank you to all the people who signed our petition to Save Frenchay Hospital. Unfortunately it was dismissed by Patricia Hewitt MP and the 50,000 people who had signed were not listened to. We are now petitioning Tony Blair directly and the good news is that you are only a click away from signing.
Follow this link to sign the new e-petition to Save Frenchay Hospital.
Signing up is easy and can be done in a few minutes. An email is sent to you which you must open and click on the link inside to confirm your signature. If you don't do this last step then your name will not be added to the list and your voice won't be heard.
Thank you to all the people who have donated, signed the petition and sent in letters of support from all over Britain and the World to save this internationally renowned hospital from closure.
A JUDICIAL REVIEW!
IN THE WEEK BEGINNING MONDAY 19 TH MARCH 2007, THERE WILL BE A JUDICIAL REVIEW IN THE HIGH COURT, LONDON , ON THE FAILURE OF THE SOUTH WEST STRATEGIC HEALTH AUTHORITY AND SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE PRIMARY CARE TRUST TO CONSULT WITH THE PUBLIC ON A PROPOSAL TO IMPLEMENT AN INDEPENDENT SECTOR TREATMENT CENTRE IN THE SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE AREA.
THE SAVE FRENCHAY HOSPITAL GROUP ARE IN SUPPORT OF A MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC AND LEGAL AID APPLICANT, WHO HAS REQUESTED THIS JUDICIAL REVIEW.
A Statement from the Save Frenchay Hospital Group February 2007
The Save Frenchay Hospital Group is supporting a legal aid applicant who is mounting a challenge in the High Court on the proposal to place an independent sector treatment centre (ISTC) in the South Gloucestershire area which will serve as the hub, or central control, for others proposed in the South West.
An application for a Judicial Review of this proposal is felt to be necessary by the Group on the grounds that the ISTC constitutes a substantial variation in the way our healthcare is provided. Such a variation should be the subject of a public consultation exercise in order to inform the public and allow the views of the population affected to influence the proposal. The Department of Health however, take the view that the implementation of the ISTC programme is not subject to public consultation.
Leigh Day & Co, a leading firm of human rights solicitors, is bringing the case on behalf of the applicant. They advise that the ISTC programme should be subject to public consultation. They were successful last year in the High Court when representing Cllr Pam Smith of Langwith in East Derbyshire , who challenged the action a local Primary Care Trust in awarding the provision of healthcare to a private company, without public consultation.
Members of the Save Frenchay Hospital Group have, since its inception, been closely involved on the Bristol Health Services Plan (BHSP) under which the world renowned Frenchay Hospital will be demolished, against the wishes of 48,000 petitioners who believe that Frenchay is the most appropriate site for a new acute hospital. The BHSP maintained that it was not necessary to have two acute hospitals for the size of the population.
The close proximity of Frenchay Hospital to the M4, M5 and M32 motorways and the A4174 ring road, currently enables critically injured patients to be treated swiftly in its Accident & Emergency facility. If the BHSP proposals are not resisted the Group feel that patient safety will be compromised as the current A & E facility will be moved to the Southmead site and access will be impeded by traffic on the heavily congested Filton Road . Last year South Gloucestershire Council expressed their concern at the Plan and made a request to Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health for the matter to be referred to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel for an unbiased review of the BHSP. This request was refused.
The SFHG are concerned that the BHSP will result in an inadequate and inequitable provision of healthcare for South Gloucestershire and East Bristol . If implemented, the BHSP will leave Bristol City with eight hospitals within its boundary whilst South Gloucestershire and East Bristol will have merely a community hospital at Frenchay (for which there is currently no funding). This hospital will only be staffed by nurse practitioners. There will be no doctors on the site as patients will be cared for by their visiting GPs.
In March 2005, NHS executives from the relevant Trust voted for 1230 acute beds over the Southmead and Frenchay sites, despite great public opposition. Three months after that date, they reduced the bed numbers in the proposed new hospital to 947, and explained that the shortfall would be made up by using beds at Weston super Mare, the Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Royal United Hospital , Bath . The proposed new hospital at Southmead was planned to have 708 new-build beds but the Trust has asked for a quotation from the contractor for 50 less beds. As the 36-bed community hospital at Southmead is to be part of the new hospital, the resultant hospital may only have 622 beds. In 2003, the area had 1600 beds.
South Gloucestershire is the fastest growing area in the UK and more development is planned. In addition, the area has a higher than average number of elderly people who will require care.
The BHSP intends that 50% of patient care will be carrried out in the community and that figure may rise to 80%, despite the fact that community provision is woefully inadequate in South Gloucestershire .
We are supporting the legal challenge to the ISTC because we believe that the destruction of Frenchay Hospital was premeditated in order to clear the way for a private sector surgical hospital and we are protesting at the lack of public involvement on this issue. The matter will go to judicial review in the High Court in London on the week beginning Monday 19 th March 2007.
We ask the the public of North Bristol, South Gloucestershire, East Bristol and the greater Bristol area to show their commitment to saving Frenchay Hospital by donating to the Save Frenchay Hospital Fighting Fund by means of our website: www.savefrenchayhospital.co.uk .
What is the Bristol Health Service Plan?
In 2003, prior to the BHSP, North Bristol NHS Trust managed 1630 beds over a number of site
The initial proposal of the BHSP, agreed by the executive of the relevant Trusts in March 2005, was for 1230 beds over the two sites of Frenchay and Southmead. An acute hospital costing £350million would be built at Southmead by means of Private Finance Initiative. Both the Frenchay site and Southmead sites would have separate community hospitals. There is no funding in the BHSP for the Frenchay community hospital and there are to be no doctors on site, just nurse practitioners.
In the summer of 2005, three months after this decision, the number of beds was reduced to 947, without explanation. This figure includes existing beds: the total of new build beds will be 708, with an option of 50 beds less. When this was challenged by members of the Public Involvement Group, they were told that the shortfall would be made up by sending patients to Weston Hospital , the Royal United Hospital , Bath and the Bristol Royal Infirmary. These beds are out of the jurisdiction of North Bristol NHS Trust and therefore, the provision for the next 30 years, could not be guaranteed.
It was also announced that the community hospital at Southmead would be subsumed into the main hospital, thereby giving those patients an advantage over Frenchay Community Hospital patients, as Southmead patients would have doctors to tend them. In addition, the Minor Injuries Unit, destined for the Frenchay site has now been allocated to the Kingswood and District provision. South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust are considering whether or not to provide another MIU at Frenchay.
North Bristol NHS Trust is currently ‘reviewing' the provision of the Macmillan Cancer Care Centre at Frenchay.
In future, the population of Bristol will have eight hospitals comprising, the Bristol Royal Infirmary, (Bristol General Hospital is to close), Bristol Eye Hospital, Homeopathic Hospital, Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, Bristol Dental Hospital, St Michael's Hospital the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and if the BHSP is implemented, a new acute hospital at Southmead.
If the BHSP is not resisted, there will be no acute hospital for the 250,000 population within the boundaries of South Gloucestershire and East Bristol . We will have lost our acute provision and we fear that North Bristol Trust will sell most of the land.
This will result in an inequitable share of healthcare provision for this area. This is why we are continuing to fight.
Images Courtesy of the Bristol Evening Post
