PLANS to divert critical overnight patients from Cheltenham to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in Gloucester will lead to deaths, consultants in Cheltenham have confided to their MP.
Two physicians held talks with Cheltenham MP Martin Horwood to voice their concern for "urgent surgical cases" if the proposals go ahead.
Mr Horwood said his main worry was the risk ambulance transfers between Cheltenham and Gloucester would put on patients' health.
He fears that it could lead to potential delays for critically-ill patients required to attend an accident and emergency department eight miles away.
In his submission for consultation, which has now closed, Mr Horwood said: "Inevitably, shifting ambulance admissions from Cheltenham to Gloucester will add eight miles to the journey.
"The consequent lack of consultants does raise concerns over patient safety, not just because of the lack of consultants themselves, but also because trainees need to be adequately supervised.
"Minutes count in all these cases," he continued, "and (the consultants') conclusions were that minutes counted in all these cases and that systematically increasing the distance travelled from half the county to an emergency department was bound to lead to deaths."
According to figures, an average 16 patients per night will be diverted from Cheltenham to Gloucester – the equivalent of 5,840 patients a year.
If the plans are approved, patients in Cheltenham won't have access to A&E locally between 8pm to 8am.
In response, Emergency Medicine Consultant Dr Tom Llewellyn said: "Our priority is to ensure that the sickest patients are seen by very skilled specialist staff when they need to be.
"The hospitals trust is facing increasing pressures as, nationally, recruitment into emergency medicine remains extremely challenging.
"From August 2013, there is no guarantee that the trust will have the number of doctors they currently have so they need to plan responsibly to ensure patient safety.
"Night time is the time when medical staffing levels are the most difficult to deliver and it would be particularly beneficial to bring specialist emergency doctors together.
"With this proposal, as a whole, the vast majority of patients would continue to access services in the way they do now."
