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Last Updated: Monday, 14 March, 2005, 18:37 GMT
City health chiefs debate future
Southmead Hospital
The Southmead site will be redeveloped
Plans to shake-up healthcare provision in Bristol were approved on Monday.

Southmead Hospital is to host Bristol's new 'super-hospital' in the �500m revamp as it offers more space and more options for expansion than Frenchay.

Experts decided Frenchay would cost too much to develop and it will become a community hospital.

Plans to close Cossham Hospital in Kingswood were recently withdrawn after protests from residents.

The proposals were approved by a committee made up of NHS and Primary Care Trusts affected by the plans.

'No losers'

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

Dr Martin Morse, medical director for the North Bristol NHS Trust, said: "There are no winners and losers; this is beneficial to healthcare."

But some residents had protested against the downgrading of Frenchay.

Steve Webb, Lib Dem MP for Northavon, said: "We're not going to give up. We're not going to take this lying down."

The decision is due before the Strategic Health Authority in the coming weeks.

Other proposals accepted 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:
    Victory for hospital campaigners
    10 Mar 05 |  Bristol/Somerset
    Southmead 'favoured' as hospital
    02 Mar 05 |  Bristol/Somerset
    Protesters hope to save hospital
    22 Feb 05 |  Bristol/Somerset
    Mental health services shake-up
    06 Jan 05 |  Bristol/Somerset


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