PEOPLE in south Bristol are being encouraged to meet their neighbours – the health staff who will be running the new community hospital.
Billboards have gone up around the city and banners on buses featuring the faces of some of the people patients will see when they attend the Hengrove Park hospital.
The long-awaited South Bristol Community will open to the first patients in ten days and the NHS wants people in the city to know that it will be there for most of their health needs.
The hospital will have an urgent care centre from March 30, which will provide the services currently available at the South Bristol walk-in centre in Knowle as well as X-rays and other diagnostic tests.
There will also be outpatient clinics and day surgery, a community dental service and rehabilitation beds opening at the hospital in the weeks after it first opens.
Among the people who appear in the large posters that have started going up around south Bristol are matron manager at the hospital Neina English, who currently works at Bristol General and lead nurse Michelle Whittle and receptionist Louise Hayward who currently work at the Knowle walk-in centre. They will all be moving over to the new hospital over the coming weeks.
Ms English said that the hope is for the hospital to be part of the community it serves.
"It is definitely a community hospital and really has to feel integrated into the community and feel a part of it," she said.
"The community is where it started. They have wanted it and fought for it for a very long time.
"This is an exciting opportunity for the NHS and the NHS is a good neighbour.
"We look out for people we are close to. At Bristol General we have had a good relationship with Redcliffe and the groups there and we want to let the people of south Bristol that we are there and are moving in and want you to use the hospital."
Ms English – who has been working on the project to move to south Bristol since 2003 – said moving the 60 beds over from Bristol General will be like moving house for the staff and patients, but on a bigger scale.
"For me it is great seeing this come to fruition, seeing the first patients through the door and seeing lots of new people we have not necessarily worked with in the past and to really understand the community that we are serving," she said.
"We will be in the centre of the community as opposed to in the city centre and have got to really understand what some of the health needs are and what some of our patients want.
"It gives us an opportunity to work with some of the community health teams and social care that provide care daily in people's homes."
Deborah Evans, pictured left, chief executive of NHS Bristol which has led the hospital development. said: "As well as being a state-of-the-art building providing a range of hospital services including surgery, we hope that South Bristol Community Hospital will soon become a thriving part of the community, contributing to the wider prosperity of the south Bristol. With this in mind we wanted to introduce local people to their new neighbours – the team who will be running the services at the new hospital.
"We want south Bristol to know who their new neighbours are and that they are looking forward to taking care of them"
A public open day is being held at South Bristol Community Hospital today from 2-6pm for people who wanted to take a look around.
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