Gloucestershire's emergency hospital care consultation ends

Cheltenham General Hospital will no longer have an out-of-hours accident and emergency department

The deadline has ended in a public consultation on planned changes to emergency medical care in Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust wants to downgrade Cheltenham General Hospital's accident and emergency department at night.

All out-of-hours emergency "blue light" cases would be sent to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital instead.

It said there were not enough trained doctors to staff both sites full-time.

Under the proposals, experienced nurse practitioners would continue to deal with "walk-in" patients, but anyone more seriously ill or in an ambulance will go straight to Gloucester.

The proposals also include moving all elective (non-urgent) paediatric day case surgery, excluding ophthalmology, and medical investigations from Cheltenham to Gloucester.

NHS Gloucestershire has estimated that 16 patients, on average, with critical illness or injury would be diverted from Cheltenham to Gloucester at night time.

The emergency departments at Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospitals currently treat around 120,000 patients every year.