Weston Area Health NHS Trust

Weston General Hospital
Weston Area Health NHS Trust
Geography
Location	Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system	Public NHS
Hospital type	District General
Services
Emergency department	Yes Accident & Emergency
Beds	320
History
Founded	1986
Links
Website	http://www.waht.nhs.uk/
Lists	Hospitals in England

Weston General Hospital is an NHS district general hospital in the town of Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England operated by Weston Area Health NHS Trust. It has an Accident & Emergency department, an intensive care unit, an Oncology and Haematology day unit, and a day case unit. Weston General has 320 beds and 1,700 staff, and has the largest midwifery-led maternity unit in the country. The hospital also has a 12 bed private unit, The Waterside Suite, wholly owned by the hospital trust, with profits being re-invested into the main hospital.

The Trust announced in 2011 that it was not viable in its present form. Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust had submitted a bid to take it over, however this was rejected in October 2015 by the NHS Trust Development Authority.

The Healthcare Commission, an independent body which promotes and drives quality healthcare in the United Kingdom, has inspected Weston General Hospital and published its findings. In the 2005/2006 period, on the quality of the healthcare it provided the hospital was rated as weak on a four point scale of weak, fair, good and excellent. This placed the hospital in the bottom performing 9% of trusts in the country. On the same scale the hospital's use of resources was also rated weak, placing it in the bottom 37% of trusts in the country. In the 2006/2007 period, the hospital's quality of healthcare score was upgraded to fair, but its use of resources rating remained at weak.

The hospital, like others, has had problems with hospital acquired infections such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C. diff). In 2003 the trust had the highest rate of MRSA infections in the country. In August 2007 the hospital was criticised in the local press following the death of a 75-year-old cancer patient from C diff. Responding the hospital stated that it had reduced infection rates by 25% through 2007. Performance figures released by the trust in September 2007 showed that hospital acquired infection rates had fallen further with just one case of MRSA in August and 18 of C.Diff, compared with more than 30 just a few months previous. These improvements are attributed to a new "bare below the elbow" initiative to ensure that staff clean their hands and wrists, plus regular steam cleaning of patient beds.

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