'Busy hospital' is adequately staffed says Trust director (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

'Busy hospital' is adequately staffed says Trust director

DOCTORS are becoming a rare species in the wards and corridors of Cirencester Hospital.

But the Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust, which took over ownership and management of the hospital in May, stressed this week this was a normal consequence of the way the unit was now being run and did not mean there was any reduction in services.

"People coming to the hospital are unlikely to see lots and lots of doctors at any one time," said Amanda Fisk, the trust's director of operations for the North and South Cotswolds.

"It is purely a problem of perception that we will have to address.

"Whilst I understand that people coming to the hospital with a fracture or something similar might be anxious if they can't immediately see a doctor anywhere, they need to realise this is not a big, district hospital.

"It is a very busy hospital, with lots of patients and lots of medical staff around, but doctors are not always needed, especially since many of the nursing staff have been given additional training."

Sometimes, said Ms Fisk, there was only one doctor in the hospital but he or she could be quickly called should it be necessary.

"We are also keen to introduce nurse-practitioners," she said, "nurses who are given extra skills to allow them to bridge the gap between what nurses and doctors do.

"We are already working towards that provision in A&E and to help with patient assessment before surgery."

Ms Fisk said reports that doctors working on the overnight and weekend rota at the hospital had had their contracts cancelled were untrue, and neither was it the case that some had not been paid since the system began in May.

"It may be that because of the new arrangements some payments are being made later than they expected," she said, "but it is nothing more than that."

She added that some of the staff grade doctors in the system had been employed as locums, and at least one had left when his locum period had ended.

"That could have led to some of these reports about doctors being sacked," she said.

"Certainly the rota which was set up two months ago is still working, and the same people who agreed to contribute to it then are still doing so. Staffing is fine."