The year began with the welcome news that Board Members from our local NHS (NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust (CST)) approved their preferred option to build a new community hospital in the Forest of Dean.
I have always been clear that I welcome this commitment to provide a new community hospital for my constituents which will ensure we have a facility in the Forest of Dean which is fit for modern, efficient and high quality healthcare.
This announcement was made at the end of January and the Boards also confirmed the criteria to be used to consider a preferred location for the hospital. This would be done through an independent body commissioned to establish a combined panel to make a recommendation on the location. The panel would be independently selected with a majority of lay (public) members and also some clinical members.
I was pleased with this announcement and it followed some good work that had been done earlier in January by Gloucestershire County Council's Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee who reviewed the earlier consultation process and provided feedback to senior NHS representatives. The Committee is chaired by Coleford County Councillor, Carole Allaway-Martin who I am pictured with, and they voted by a clear majority to agree the consultation process was undertaken in line with statutory requirements and was appropriate and proportionate. More on this topic later on in my review of the year!
I was also pleased in January to read about a life saving initiative that students at Newent Community School had taken part in.
The School is leading the way in training its pupils in vital skills so they can treat people while waiting for the emergency services. This means pupils have been taught how to do chest compressions and how defibrillators work. They were trained by British Heart Foundation experts.
I passed on my congratulations on this excellent scheme to School’s Principal, Mr Alan Johnson.