Following intervention by South Gloucestershire MPs Chris Skidmore, Jack Lopresti and Luke Hall, North Bristol NHS Trust have agreed that there will be no future land sales until the much awaited BNSSG Clinical Commissioning Group’s assessment of community needs is published. This will bring relief to the many who were worried that further land sales could jeopardise plans for a Community Hospital in Frenchay. Fears were raised at a South Gloucestershire Council Health Scrutiny Committee meeting which revealed that the NHS Trust had been encouraging planning applications from Redrow Homes since the autumn last year. Chris Skidmore, Jack Lopresti and Luke Hall have been working together to ensure the Community Hospital is delivered after Labour’s disastrous Bristol Health Services Plan downgraded Frenchay Hospital, and following this news they wrote to the CEO of North Bristol NHS Trust, Andrea Young, to seek urgent clarification. Further to this, the MPs will also be meeting the government Minister who is responsible for community health services to press the need for this vital health care provision in South Gloucestershire. Responding to the South Gloucestershire MPs, Andrea Young, CEO of North Bristol NHS Trust: “I would like to reassure you that NBT remains committed to supporting our partners to deliver additional out-of-acute-hospital services for the South Gloucestershire population and we will continue to support the CCG to achieve this. We have not changed our position which is to make available land at Frenchay and Thornbury to support health and social care centres” Local MPs Chris Skidmore, Jack Lopresti and Luke Hall: “We are glad to see North Bristol NHS Trust renew their support for health and social care centres at Frenchay and Thornbury. We welcome the statement in writing that the trust will not sell any land until the CCG has presented its options, however we again reiterate that we feel that the services must come first, be up and running, and delivered before we consider what to do with any potential surplus land. It is vital that the land in Frenchay is used for a Community Hospital and we will work to ensure that the NHS Trust delivers on their promises to stop seeking planning applications for the site.”
The North Bristol NHS Trust will not sell any further land until community needs have been assessed by the BNSSG Clinical Commissioning Group. There was concern that land sales could put plans for a community hospital at risk, following the revelation that the NHS Trust had been encouraging housebuilder Redrow Homes to submit planning applications.