Temporary overnight closure of A&E from 4 July
Please note that as from 4 July 2017 the A&E at Weston General Hospital is temporarily closed overnight from 10pm - 8am.
Please come to the hospital between these times as normal if you need A&E. If you come to A&E even a few minutes before 10pm you'll still be seen.
What to do if you need A&E overnight in Weston and North Somerset
During the closure 10pm to 8am:
Call non-emergency NHS 111 where you will be directed to the best medical care for you
Call 999 for any serious or life-threatening conditions
Patients transferred to Bristol or Taunton overnight will be brought back to Weston if appropriate as soon as they are fit enough to continue their treatment and recovery here, normally within 2-3 days.
Explaining the reasons behind the closure James Rimmer, Chief Executive Weston Area Health NHS Trust said:
"Our A&E has been fragile for several years. We have severe challenges with recruiting and retaining senior doctors to staff our A&E department 24 hours and day, seven days a week, and now need to find new ways to address this.”
“We are at risk of falling short of providing safe levels of staffing in our A&E department at night. Our staff have worked incredibly hard to shore-up the department but despite significant efforts we just can’t recruit enough permanent doctors and are very dependent on temporary and locum staff. That isn’t sustainable for such a highly specialist clinical team and poses an intractable problem for the Trust
This is a temporary measure. No permanent changes to A&E services or any other services in the hospital will be made without a full public consultation.
READ MORE HERE
Last updated on 07 August 2017.
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