County suspends scrutiny of changes to general hospital surgery after NHS threatened with legal action

Gloucestershire County Council has suspended scrutiny of a proposed change to general hospital surgery in the county after a campaign group threatened the NHS with judicial review.

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has proposed transferring general surgery from Cheltenham hospital to Gloucester, but now faces judicial review by local campaign group Reach over whether the changes are in breach of NHS England’s guidance on service change.

The council said its health overview and scrutiny committee had suspended the work of a task and finish group looking into the proposal in light of the legal move.

Committee chair Carole Allaway-Martin said: “This is an extremely important issue and one that the group were keen to consider in detail but, with the potential of judicial review there was little choice other than to suspend work on the subject until these matters have been resolved.”

A statement by the trust said: “We have received legal correspondence regarding our proposals to pilot changes to general surgery at Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospitals and we will respond in line with our usual protocol.

“We are committed to providing the best possible care for our patients both now and into the future. In doing so we continue to carefully consider how best we can use both our main hospital sites for the benefit of all patients in Gloucestershire.”

Mark Smulian