Last week, it was confirmed that the location of the Forest of Dean’s new £11 million community hospital will be in Cinderford.
The NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust (GCS) unanimously decided to accept the recommendation made by the Citizens’ Jury of 18 local people in July.
The NHS bodies carefully considered the recommendation of the independent Citizens’ Jury, together with feedback received during the recent public and staff engagement, information about travel and access, independent Equality Impact Analysis and other information about the population of the Forest.
Further detailed work will now be carried out by our local NHS to identify and consider suitable sites as well as undertaking further public engagement in the coming months to ensure local people are fully involved in the development of our new community hospital in the Forest of Dean and the services it will provide.
It is thought to be the first time the location of a hospital has been chosen this way and, as your Member of Parliament, I argued for a Citizens’ Jury to have a stake in the process of deciding where our new hospital will be built. I am really pleased that we are now one step closer to getting our new community hospital.
This latest decision will ensure we have a facility in the Forest of Dean which is fit for modern, efficient and high quality healthcare and I will continue to follow the progress of this with interest.
Throughout my 13 years as the local Member of Parliament here, I have always supported delivering as many healthcare services as possible locally within the Forest of Dean.
I know that view is widely shared by my constituents and I am pleased that the partnership of our local NHS and local people have taken the next steps towards delivering better services for all of us to use.