Letter: Hospital shake-up will be better for patients

As is evident from the different views expressed there are different views and concerns over the plans. It should be stressed that the re-focusing of A&E to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital is just one part of a much larger package.

I was fortunate enough to have attended the joint authority meeting in Dorchester earlier this year when the joint decision was not to refer the clinical services review to the secretary of state. At this meeting we were fortunate enough to hear from a complete range of people, including residents, the hospitals, the clinical commissioning group and the ambulance service. Whilst residents expressed concerns, the consistent view of the health care side (hospital and ambulance) was that these reforms would improve patient outcomes.

Therefore whilst one can talk about delays getting to hospitals, the resounding message was that what matters most for health outcomes is going to the hospital best equipped to treat you. The reorganisation of the A&E services will enable the hospitals to provide a higher level of A&E care than is currently available in Dorset, by extension giving better health outcome overall.

Let us not just think and talk about residents from a certain geographical location who fear delays in ambulance times may have an adverse effect. Let us look at the health outcomes for all residents across the whole area.

There are issues to be looked at about the performance of the ambulance trust, but this is a separate stream of working being undertaken jointly by Bournemouth and Poole health panels and quite independent of the clinical services review.

Let’s hope the area gets the £40million investment into health services that flow with the clinical services review. These improvements will give us health and maternity facilities that we don't currently have, improving outcomes for many people.

DAVID D'ORTON-GIBSON, ward councillor, Redhill and Northbourne (Conservative)