SOMERSET NEWS: Hospital partnership offers solution for Somerset skin cancer patients

PLANS to close the skin service at Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital from April 1 this year have been avoided thanks to a partnership with University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.

Existing patients with complex dermatological disease and skin cancers, who are currently being seen in Musgrove Park Hospital, can be assured of their care over the next 12 months.

Since October 2016, patients from Taunton and West Somerset with suspected skin cancer have had to be referred to hospital dermatology clinics in Bristol, Bath, Yeovil or Exeter.

New referrals of patients with suspected skin cancer will still need to be seen at these hospitals whilst more hospital specialists are recruited to support the Somerset dermatology service. 

A chronic national shortage of hospital dermatologists meant Musgrove Park Hospital was unable to recruit dermatology specialist to fill vacant posts left by retiring specialists last year.

Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group, the GP led organisation responsible for the planning and funding of local health services, has been working with Musgrove Park Hospital and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UBHT), to agree that local follow-up dermatology clinics will continue at Musgrove Park Hospital from April 1, 2017, using visiting hospital dermatology specialists from  UBHT, with the aim of providing a full service – including new referrals – by April 1, 2018.

Dr Ed Ford, chairman of Somerset CCG, said: “We are delighted to have come to an agreement with both hospitals to ensure patients currently being supported by Musgrove Park Hospital will continue to do so.

“The longer-term goal is to see a hospital dermatology service delivered locally again. I am confident that this will be possible in the coming year with the help of UBHT hospital specialists.”

Dr David DeBerker, a dermatology consultant at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are pleased to be working in partnership with Musgrove Park Hospital to continue to provide care to those with complex skin disease and skin cancer who have been treated there recently.

‘We currently do not have the resource to see all new patients from Somerset. However, we hope this interim approach of supporting follow-up patients at Musgrove, and recruiting additional consultant dermatologists to work between Bristol and Taunton will allow us to rebuild the dermatology service at Musgrove for the future and reduce any additional stress for patients.

“This challenge is part of a national picture where there are an estimated 200 consultant dermatology posts unfilled in Britain and only 680 Dermatologists in total.”

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