Dear Mrs Julia Ross
You will remember that I wrote to you back in January asking your team to consider the innovative model for emergency treatment and care which was put forward by the Consultant Body of Weston General Hospital, and you agreed. I think your team has already met several times with the Consultants, and assessment of their model is now underway in parallel with the rest of the Healthy Weston Consultation. Preliminary analysis by both sides shows there are many similarities and overlaps between the two proposals, but also some important differences which have to be bottomed out as well.
Since then I’ve asked the Consultants how we can gather evidence which can inform the decision on whether their model will work in practice, and whether it will be more efficient or more effective (or not) compared to the Healthy Weston proposals. Essentially, they believe the most credible approach would be to pilot their proposals to provide the necessary data.
The Consultants tell me this pilot could be set up pretty quickly (within about a month) and that it would not take very long for the model to gather the statistical data needed to show whether the predicted improvements to patient flow and efficiency have been delivered. It would take a little longer (up to a year) to show clinical outcomes but, crucially, I’m told a pilot would be safe for patients.
With all this in mind, I’d like to ask the CCG to work with the Consultants and the hospital’s management to deliver this pilot in Weston. It should lead to a better eventual decision, and would have the backing of not only Weston’s Consultant Group but many members of the public too.
Yours sincerely,
John Penrose
MP for Weston-super-Mare