Full Story at HSJ 11 April 2018
Plans to split two hospitals into emergency and elective care centres as part of a £147m reconfiguration are being held up by a judicial review, which could delay a long awaited trust merger.
Local campaigners are challenging Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group’s decision to commission emergency services from Royal Bournemouth Hospital and elective services from Poole Hospital.
The sites currently provide both services, but the CCG’s plan will see Poole’s accident and emergency department downgraded to an urgent care centre. Most of Bournemouth’s elective work will be transferred to Poole.
The proposal followed a clinical services review launched in 2014.