News story

12th January 2004

MP's Survey Identifies Massive Gulf between Public and Health Chiefs over Local Hospital Plans

Massive scepticism among local people about plans for changes in local hospital services has been revealed today with the publication of the results of a large-scale NHS survey by Northavon MP Steve Webb. The MP found that more than 80% of residents surveyed said that the views of South Gloucestershire residents were not being properly taken into account by local health chiefs. Many replies were either from patients with first hand experience or from people who work in the local health service.

The survey also revealed overwhelming hostility to plans to downgrade either Frenchay or Southmead Hospital and concentrate services on a single site. Even if the local trusts were to claim that the changes were needed on clinical grounds, the survey showed that a significant majority of local people would simply not believe them.

This mass survey was undertaken by Northavon MP Steve Webb over the Summer and Autumn of 2003, with the assistance of over 500 volunteer deliverers. Survey forms were delivered to nearly 40,000 households across the Northavon constituency, and over 8,000 forms were returned. Many forms were filled in jointly by both members of a couple, and so the returned forms reflected the views of over 10,000 people.

Click here to read the key findings and full report of the survey.

Commenting on the results of the survey, Steve Webb said:

“I talk regularly both to health chiefs and to local residents, and this survey shows that the gulf between the two is enormous. Health chiefs have already decided that one of the major local hospitals in the area needs to be downgraded, but local people simply do not accept this.

"People feel that their concerns are not being listened to and that these changes are being driven by finance rather than by quality of care. Health chiefs need to do some serious listening in the coming months if they are to have a chance of coming up with proposals that will win the confidence of local people here in South Gloucestershire”.