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Last Updated: Wednesday, 2 March, 2005, 19:35 GMT
Southmead 'favoured' as hospital
Southmead Hospital
Southmead will be redeveloped
Southmead Hospital is to be the recommended site to host Bristol's new 'super-hospital' in a �500m revamp of health services.

A long-awaited report on the future of healthcare in the city found Southmead offered more space and more options for expansion than its sister, Frenchay.

Experts decided Frenchay Hospital would cost too much to develop.

It will become a community hospital with its specialist burns and brain surgery units moving to Southmead.

A decision to close Cossham Hospital in Kingswood was deferred for further consultation.

Mike Robinson, chair of the Bristol Health Services Plan, said: "Over the next eight years, we will be investing more than �500m.

Frenchay hospital
Frenchay will become a community hospital

"This is an opportunity to improve the quality of services and buildings and to provide community-based services close to people's homes."

But Steve Webb, Lib Dem MP for North Avon, told the BBC: "I think the people in my constituency will despair at the thought of being moved in an ambulance across to Southmead in the rush hour; it just won't work."

The new hospital on the Southmead site would cost around �280m and would not open before 2012.

A committee made up of NHS and Primary Care Trusts will meet on 14 March to make the final decision on the proposals.

Other plans include:

  • Consolidating children's services at the Children's Hospital
  • A new community hospital in south Bristol and in Yate
  • A new community healthcare centre in central and east Bristol
  • The closure of Bristol General Hospital
  • Revamping the BRI
  • Moving A&E to Frenchay from Southmead as an interim measure
  • Services for the elderly relocated from Blackberry Hospital, with more than 100 beds closed.


  • SEE ALSO:
    Protesters hope to save hospital
    22 Feb 05 |  Bristol/Somerset
    Mental health services shake-up
    06 Jan 05 |  Bristol/Somerset
    Public 'aware' of hospital plans
    29 Dec 04 |  Bristol/Somerset
    Health care shake-up is debated
    01 Dec 04 |  Bristol/Somerset
    Hospital faces uncertain future
    06 Nov 03 |  Bristol/Somerset


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