Why have we joined together?

There are many benefits of building on our numerous years of partnership working and taking the step to become one organisation. These include:

• Creating an even better experience for our patients – ensuring people from North Somerset and surrounding areas will be able to be seen and treated in their local hospital, and improving access to specialist services in both Bristol and Weston through better use of an expanded workforce, estates and facilities. For example, over 500 older people will be able to have their cataract operation in Weston rather than having to travel to Bristol.
• Bringing stability to Weston General Hospital so that it remains at the heart of the community, providing services that meet the needs of its local people.
• A 13,000+ strong workforce increases our diversity, capacity and resilience, allowing for greater development opportunities for our staff across a much wider portfolio of services, strengthening the knowledge base, peer support and skills and experience of all our employees.
• An opportunity to share expertise and best practice – particularly in the delivery of exemplar models of frailty, ambulatory and out-of-hospital care. Using the opportunity to develop and learn from each other to create truly joined up care which enables people to stay in their own home, or return home as soon as they no longer need our care.
• The roll out of digital technology across the new organisation will enhance and improve the quality and delivery of services across the new organisation, further cementing our Global Digital Exemplar status. This will not only help our staff to do their jobs more efficiently, but will bring real benefits to patients, who won’t have to keep repeating the same information.
• Releasing untapped potential in our services – particularly in the development of medical and surgical ambulatory care, nurturing innovation and research, and empowering our teams to design services and pathways at the forefront of care.

You can find out more on the Shaping our Future Together pages.