The Consultation

Update - September 2018

The Friends of Lydney and District Hospital were naturally very concerned with the NHS boards recent decision to accept the recommendation of the Citizen’s Jury to site the proposed new Community Hospital in or near Cinderford. Their case seemed to rest on the perceived combination of a more central location and the high levels of health deprivation in and around that part of the Forest. However, site accessibility and growing future population apparently received little priority.

The members of the Jury were very genuine, interested residents who spent several days listening to and discussing amongst themselves large amounts of data in various formats. It was a thankless task with no clear-cut majority decision and as one Juror said to the Board “there was no single right location”. We thank them for their dedication.

We are most grateful for all the support of local people during the recent public engagements exercise which resulted in over 50% of the responders choosing Lydney as their preference -twice as much as any other location, this too seemed to carry little weight with the NHS boards.

It now appears that it is planned for all new health care facilities to be situated in the north of the Forest, thereby severely disadvantaging those in the South. The Friends maintain that there certainly needs to be a second unit for provision for Minor Illness and Injury Units, Outpatients and other related services to be continued in the South as well as the North and will continue to campaign to this effect.

Meanwhile they will continue to support the staff at Lydney Hospital as well as the maintenance of the existing services.

Mary Thurston
Friends of Lydney Hospital

Newspaper Article – 'Friends’ Concerns (April 2018)

This letter was published in the Forest Review in April 2018

The Friends of Lydney Hospital have regular conversations with the NHS. They have continually said that they feel that the Forest of Dean is currently well served by its two hospitals in their current locations.
However, the Friends have reluctantly come to accept the proposal that a single hospital could provide greater efficiencies in the utilisation of the buildings and overall staffing costs and, therefore, a single hospital would be able to provide both additional and improved local services.
The right number of beds:
The Friends continue to make representations to the NHS that 36 beds are the absolute minimum provision for the Forest of Dean.
Much emphasis has naturally been placed on the number of beds, although many more patients attend the hospital for Minor Injury and Illness, and Outpatient Clinics so this must not be overlooked when it comes to access of the right services.
The site and the location of the site:

Currently the public emphasis is on deciding the location of the new single hospital. The main factor to be considered will be accessibility for members of staff, patients, emergency and other services.
Due to the topography and demographics, the Forest is not blessed with an easy road infrastructure - it does, however, have one major corridor that is the A48 from Gloucester to the Severn Bridge.
Many roads in the Forest feed into the A48, providing good access and thereby minimising travel time for both patients and staff and onward transport for urgent cases to both Gloucester and Bristol hospitals.
House building along the A48 is becoming a favoured area for developers. It is predicted and already evidenced that the population growth in the Forest is most rapid along the A48 area – this is driven by the rising tide of house prices along the M4 corridor, which has now spread to this side of the river and will be speeded up by the removal of the Severn Bridge tolls.
The site needs to be large enough to be able to accommodate generous, free car parking and the range of other associated services such as ambulances, mobile services and treatment centres.
The Friends are aware that two suitable sites have generously been made available, both having direct access to the A48 and have suitable planning allocations.

The process of selecting the site:

While the Friends had, preceding and during the consultation, enjoyed good communication with Gloucestershire Care Services, we have not heard anything formally from Citizens’ Juries (the company organising the next stage of the decision process).
We feel this is a major breakdown in communication and are very concerned that there is inadequate time to manage this major decision.
We believe Gloucestershire County Council’s Health and Care Overview Scrutiny Committee should keep a close view of the process as it is in danger of stepping outside good practice.
The Friends of Lydney Hospital reluctantly accepted the argument that a single hospital would provide new services for all the population, but remain committed to ensuring that the new provision is fit for future generations. Let’s make sure that we do not miss the opportunity to locate the hospital to match the population and road network of the area.

Update on the Consultation of Re-provision of Community Forest Hospitals (September 2017)

The first phase of the Forest Consultation into the future for the community hospitals has now concluded with a decision taken by the respective NHS trusts that a replacement single hospital will be built in place of the two existing hospitals. The broad location for the new hospital will be established in the next few months and this will be in Cinderford, Coleford or Lydney. The hospital will not be available for public use until 2022 at the earliest, and in the meantime assurances have been given that the existing hospitals will continue to function as at present without any reduction in services. As a result of this decision, we will need to provide full support to the Matron and staff for at least the next four years, and the Friends will try to maintain fundraising at or beyond current levels regardless of whether or not the new hospital is built in Lydney.

The Friends will fully support the local community of Lydney and District in lobbying for the hospital to come to Lydney. This support will include participating in a presentation to the advisory group which the Trust intends to convene shortly to assess the relative merits of the different location options. There are persuasive arguments in Lydney's favor and these will be fully analysed and quantified prior to the formal presentation.

The initial communication from the Gloucestershire CCG published on 12 September 2017