Dorset’s Hospital Shake Up Puts Residents at the Centre of the Debate

Residents in Dorset are being urged to voice their concerns as one of the most significant hospital reorganisations in the county’s history moves into its next phase. University Hospitals Dorset is hosting a public drop in session at the Gather space in Poole’s Dolphin Centre, inviting people to ask questions, challenge assumptions and hear directly from leaders responsible for a five hundred million pound transformation programme.

The planned changes are substantial. Royal Bournemouth Hospital is being developed into Dorset’s major emergency centre while Poole Hospital is set to become the largest planned care site in the country. The reconfiguration means Poole will lose its emergency department in the summer of 2026. Emergency ambulances will go to Bournemouth while elective procedures and routine services will be concentrated in Poole.

James Donald, the associate director of communications at the trust, said the event is intended to ensure residents understand the scale of what is happening and feel able to raise any anxieties about how the system will work. He stressed that consultation must be more than a briefing. It is an opportunity to listen, and to confront local worries before the changes go live.

The trust argues that the split between emergency and planned care will reduce cancellations and help bring down waiting times. Leaders point to early improvements in services that have already moved, including maternity, which relocated from Poole to Bournemouth earlier this year, along with stroke and cardiology pathways that are now delivered through combined teams.

The logic behind the model is familiar. When urgent and elective care share the same site, the pressures of emergency demand often dominate. Theatre lists are cancelled, beds are repurposed and carefully planned procedures are delayed. Creating a standalone planned care centre is seen as a way to protect elective work from these disruptions and to maintain a steadier flow of surgery.

However, the decision to centralise emergency treatment at Bournemouth is significant. Although the two hospitals are only eight point four miles apart, residents want assurances that ambulance journeys will remain safe, that travel times will be manageable for families and that urgent walk in patients will still have access to rapid assessment. The trust says Poole’s expanded Urgent Treatment Centre will be able to handle walk in emergencies and will reduce unnecessary transfers.

At the heart of the debate is the tension between strategic planning and public confidence. Major hospital reconfigurations often deliver long term benefits, but they can also generate uncertainty. People worry about access, about the impact on vulnerable groups and about whether the promised improvements will be realised.

By opening its doors to local scrutiny, University Hospitals Dorset is signalling a willingness to confront those questions directly. The success of the transformation will depend not only on clinical design and capital investment but also on whether residents feel heard, respected and informed as the system around them evolves.