{"id":90419,"date":"2025-08-23T16:49:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T16:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/90419\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T16:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T16:49:14","slug":"nhs-somerset-says-no-decision-made-on-hospital-bed-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/90419\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS Somerset says ‘no decision made’ on hospital bed closures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Barltrop<\/p>\n

Political Editor, West of England<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

One of the key aims of the government’s 10-year health plan is for patients to be treated more within the community to free up hospital beds and resources<\/p>\n

Michelle Ruminski<\/p>\n

Political Reporter, Somerset<\/p>\n

Uncertainty remains over the future of community hospital beds, as the NHS moves towards more care at home. <\/p>\n

In line with the government’s 10-year plan<\/a>, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust is engaging on proposals to close, relocate or re-purpose inpatient beds.<\/p>\n

Temporary bed reductions are being trialled in the autumn at Bridgwater, Frome and West Mendip community hospitals, with staff being redeployed accordingly.<\/p>\n

At a scrutiny committee meeting on Thursday, the trust and the NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board (ICB) said no decisions have been made on any permanent closures. <\/p>\n

Proposed changes<\/p>\n

As part of the test and learn scheme, the following temporary bed reductions will be made for 12 weeks in the autumn:<\/p>\n

Bridgwater Community Hospital – from 30 to 24 beds Frome Community Hospital – from 24 to 16 bedsWest Mendip Hospital – from 30 to 16 beds<\/p>\n

In its place, there will be additional investment in community alternatives.<\/p>\n

These include increased support for people in their own homes, alongside more funding for care home beds close to where patients live.<\/p>\n

Potential temporary bed reductions are also being discussed<\/a> in Burnham-on-Sea and Crewkerne, to create more physical space for additional services like chemotherapy, cardiology, urology, and community midwifery. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people came out to protest the bed cuts at Crewkerne Hospital<\/p>\n

Somerset NHS foundation Trust said it would benefit local people because they would have a range of diagnostic services and treatments on their doorstep, and would not need to travel to the county’s acute hospitals.<\/p>\n

“No decisions have been taken to permanently close beds in our community hospitals, but we have a real opportunity to reimagine how we use them to provide the best possible care for local people,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

But councillor Claire Sully, vice chair of the council’s adults and health scrutiny committee, said: “I am confused by what their plan is.”<\/p>\n

\"Councillor<\/p>\n

Councillor Claire Sully says she is “confused” by the trust’s plan<\/p>\n

“I’m not confused by the vision of getting people to have care at their home, but we don’t know the details.<\/p>\n

“Staff members, some working for nearly 40 years, don’t know if they’re going to have a job. <\/p>\n

“Today’s meeting hasn’t reassured me. I’m concerned about what the future of our community hospitals will be.”<\/p>\n

NHS Somerset is staging numerous in-person events over the summer and early-autumn under the ‘Big Conversation’<\/a> scheme, allowing people to have their say on the 10-year health plan and what it means locally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Barltrop Political Editor, West of England Getty Images One of the key aims of the government’s 10-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-90419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}