What will happen to acute services at North Devon District Hospital? “I don’t know,” says Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust’s chief executive.
Alison Diamond gave a presentation at North Devon Council’s executive meeting on Monday, March 6, under special request from the committee.
The meeting took place at Cedars Inn to allow member of the public to attend and more than 100 people turned up to hear the update and ask their questions.
When asked what was going to happen to the Barnstaple hospital and the proposed cuts to its acute services, which includes stroke, A&E, maternity, paediatric and neonatal support, Dr Diamond did not know the answer.
She said: “I am here on behalf of the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), which aims to provide a Five Year Forward View, to give an update. I do not have any answers today and I do not know what the model of care will look like because no decisions have been made yet.
“Our vision is to have people managing their own care and for that we need responsive care services and fair access to services. Our services are under review because the demand is going up, they were designed for the needs of people from a long time ago, we do not have enough staff, and the standards we have to comply with are always changing.
“Urgent and emergency care, stroke, maternity, paediatric, and neonatal are currently under review but others will follow.”
Read more at: Devonlive (6th March 2017)