'Citizens' jury' to vote on Forest of Dean hospital plan site

The Dilke Memorial Hospital is due to close, along with Lydney and District Hospital

The location of a new hospital will be influenced by a "citizens' jury", for what is thought to be the first time.

Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust voted to close Lydney and Dilke community hospitals in the Forest of Dean earlier this year.

Members of the public will rule on whether to build the new £11m facility in Coleford, Cinderford or Lydney.

The jury is due to vote on the preferred location on Friday but its decision will not be binding.

Dr Malcolm Oswald, director of Citizens Juries Community Interest Company, said he was not aware of any similar recommendation for a new hospital's location having been made in this way.

He said it was "very much in the interests" of the trust and NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) "to hear what local people want".

Protests were held outside Shire Hall in Gloucester over the future of the Lydney and Dilke Hospitals

"From having worked with the two bodies for several months I have no sense at all that any of them have a view on where it should go," he said.

"They want to hear the evidence of the jury."

Citizens' juries were first used in the 1980s to debate public policy but "tend to go through bursts of popularity" according to Dr Oswald.

The jury of 18 paid members of the public from the area will hear evidence for the next week but its conclusion will not be binding.

In a public consultation in 2017 the plan to close Dilke Memorial Hospital, near Cinderford, and Lydney and District Hospital was rejected by 46% of respondents, compared to 43% who supported it.

However, Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust voted in January to go ahead with its preferred option to replace the two sites with the new £11m facility.