Services at the new Thornbury Hospital

Yesterday the Gazette reported that NHS South Gloucestershire have provided a list of services that could be offered at the new Thornbury Hospital.

Options may include a minor injuries unit, outpatients, day services, pain management, therapeutic services and inpatient services. Robert Knibbs, the project director for Thornbury Hospital, said that it has already been decided what services are needed for health and social care, but that "The group is now looking closely to see if these services would be clinically, financially and operationally viable. For example we cannot develop a service that does not meet national quality benchmarks or national access and waiting list targets and is not financially viable."

Currently Thornbury Hospital contains an inpatient rehabilitation ward, an outpatient department and a physiotherapy suite, making these proposed additions welcome, but failing to strike me as being overly dramatic (the hospital already providing roughly half of the proposed services). That said the next meeting to decide exactly what we can expect from a Thornbury Hospital is not scheduled until January next year, when the steering group will decide which of the proposed services are actually viable.

It is my opinion that the currently undetermined future of Frenchay hospital makes the provision of more services in Thornbury all the more important. However, we cannot expect any new plans for Thornbury to rival the services (particularly in emergency cases) at Frenchay, making the future of this hospital more important in my eyes. If you would like more information about Thornbury Hospital then you can visit their website at http://www.stmarystreetsurgery.nhs.uk/thornburyhospital.html and news on the campaign to save Frenchay Hospital is provided at http://www.savefrenchayhospital.co.uk/.