At the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group AGM held on 13th July 2016, which was attended by Cllr. Cheryl Hobbs, included on the agenda were proposals for the reorganisation and delivery of NHS services in Dorset. The Clinical Commissioning Group is developing a 5 year plan to implement their vision of the future.
In brief, these included:
- The development of ‘hubs’ (7 across the county, including Bournemouth and Poole) to deliver comprehensive health services nearer to where people live. These hubs may or may not have in-patient beds attached to them. Some community hospitals will be closed as a result. It is hoped to prevent 10,000 admissions to hospital with the development of this new way of delivering care.
- The three large hospitals at Bournemouth, Poole and Dorchester will be re-designated – Bournemouth to be a major emergency hospital, to deal with complex emergency care – Poole to be a major ‘planned care’ hospital – Dorchester to become a planned care and emergency hospital.
It is hoped that these hospital changes will result in more lives saved, less operations cancelled and better outcomes for patients. It is planned to invest over £100 million in state of the art facilities.
There is to be a separate mental health strategy review which is expected to report early in 2017.
All these proposals will be out for consultation this autumn and the consultation will run for 12 weeks.
Further information can be found at; www.dorsetccg.nhs.uk, facebook.com/NHSdorsetCCG and www.dorsetsvision.nhs.uk.