Health bosses have confirmed this afternoon (Wednesday) Weston General Hospital’s A&E should not reopen permanently overnight, subject to public consultation.

The around-the-clock service was just one of five models put forward by the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to go to public consultation next month after Weston’s department closed ‘temporarily’ in July 2017.

But the governing body will consider a report which prefers a medically-led A&E which would operate between 8am and 10pm seven days per week, with a strengthened GP out-of-hours service and more direct admissions onto hospital wards overnight.

It will consider the recommendation at a public meeting on Tuesday at 1.30pm at the Royal Hotel in South Parade.

There will be a continued reliance on emergency care in Bristol and Taunton in the most serious cases – as per before and during the overnight closure.

The Mercury reported last week consultants had put forward a plan for inpatient teams to support emergency doctors, which would have enabled the A&E to reopen overnight.

MORE: Consultants propose new model to reopen hospital’s A&E.

The CCG confirmed it will be working closely with the them on their suggested model.

There are also plans to develop the hospital as a centre of excellence, with a frailty service for older people and an extended service for acutely unwell children, alongside more planned surgery and increased access to specialist outpatient services, such as cancer care.

A new crisis recovery service would be located in the centre of Weston, providing much-needed support for people with mental health needs.

Weston’s MP John Penrose has backed consultants’ proposals to re-open the hospital’s A&E department overnight and wrote to the CCG asking it to consider re-opening the hospital’s emergency department.

For more, pick up a copy of tomorrow’s (Thursday’s) Mercury.