Protestors gathered outside Weston General Hospital on Tuesday to demonstrate against the continuing overnight closure of the hospital’s accident and emergency department.
It’s seven months since A&E was shut at night after hospital bosses said they couldn’t recruit enough staff.
At the time they said the closure would be temporary but protestors want it re-opened as soon as possible.
Last week, plans were announced to merge Weston General’s trust with one in Bristol, which the town’s MP said would be a “big step” towards solving the closure.
Weston General Hospital serves more than 200,000 people, including many people in the Burnham-On-Sea area, and has been closed overnight since July 2017 because it says it could not guarantee safe levels of staffing overnight.
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UHBT) and Weston Area Health NHS Trust (WAHT) said a merger could take place in spring 2019. The potential merger builds on a formal partnership between the two trusts, implemented in May 2017.
