Robin Walker, Worcester’s MP, has welcomed last night’s announcement by the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust that it will be taking a number of urgent steps to address concerns following the resignation of four consultants from the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch and one from the WRH, that it is already recruiting to fill these roles and that it will be pushing for a “substantial enlargement” of the A&E Department at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital. He has offered the local NHS and clinicians his full support in pressing to secure this.
Robin visited the hospital on Thursday last week and saw for himself some of the pressures on the A&E department, talking to matrons, doctors and nurses who work there as well as to patients in the waiting room. He also met last week with both the Chairman of the Acute Trust and the leadership of the South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group to discuss how matters could be improved. It was clear from all of his discussions that there was a need for more capacity in the Emergency Department at the WRH, to encourage greater throughput of patients and that it had faced a sustained level of high demand, particularly from elderly patients, over a long period of time.
The Independent Panel that looked at recommendations for the future of Worcestershire’s Acute services during the Joint Services Review, also pressed for an upgrade to Worcester’s A&E as part of its recommended “modified Option 1 scenario” for a networked enhanced Emergency service for the whole County based out of Worcester with a networked emergency centre at the Alex. This option was backed by all of Worcestershire’s clinical commissioning groups and has the strong support of the South Worcestershire CCG.
There are already plans in place for an enhanced GP led urgent care centre close to the hospital to relieve some pressure on the Emergency Department and in 2013 Robin helped to open a Surgical Clinical Decisions Unit at the hospital to increase capacity. Robin has discussed with local doctors how the original plan for Worcester’s A&E had been for a bigger department, closer to Newtown Road and how this was downgraded during the PFI negotiations under Labour in 1997. Robin has repeatedly criticised the poor PFI deal under which the WRH was built, smaller than originally planned and with an expensive burden of debt for the local NHS. He has been supporting the Finance Director in pressing for compensation or a rebate on the deal and supported a national campaign for a PFI rebate.
Robin has already successfully campaigned for a number of service upgrades to the WRH in recent years, helping to secure the £24 million Oncology centre which is being opened later this year, the new Worcestershire Breast unit and the Midwife led birth unit to be called the Meadows Birth Centre. He has now offered his full support to the campaign to upgrade Worcester’s A&E.
Speaking on these matters he said
“I have long been convinced that only by expanding Worcester’s A&E as well as continuing to invest in extended GP services and social care can we hope to deal with the growing pressure on our hospital and meet the demand for emergency services in the County. I welcomed the recommendation from the clinically led review that this should be looked into but I have been disappointed at the delay in implementing it and I welcome the announcement that as from today, our hospitals trust will be formally pushing for it. Mistakes were made in the past with the PFI deal on our hospital and we need to learn from those to get things right for the future. I strongly support proposals for an enhanced emergency department at the Worcestershire Royal and will do all I can to push for it in Parliament.”
Notes to editors
For Robin’s most recent releases on the local NHS see:
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=4577789b9af9f2f64cce489953500dd8
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=2d3bb07edfcbf5cb406bb2524feb1d88
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=3cf3443cadc7e8f07d6b5423ff6b9531
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=600047220a57557e5d6e5780a54b77c2
For his and other local politicians response to the JSR see:
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=15991f6d0e23649c5551d9900509fbf9
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=4cd3f8d7232268b1f85c411547eded46
For his support for other hospital campaigns see:
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=739c1df248b4ead470707d842981c3e9
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=898414620aa64c9188f1b0755ddb7338
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=d3688be52808b36c95f915012f2cbebf
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=ff95f6c6ba4d32eb3119353b0b4e873c
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=df97c40887cafce186af6008a5e3e698
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=999c7f23176a64da4bcde191b8388258
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=3cf3443cadc7e8f07d6b5423ff6b9531
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=5616c28a1b6d8acf55cbe8ff1877f868
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=5b49b68f31ce20769965602a2eaf04f3
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=d32253febae2bc3a5069cda440a46733
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=d737b0b45aaa3342c99a1cbc79999c92
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=048947df9649eac1304875d5491f10d3
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=95da8f01ae836907b0623178ae97ea98
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=e5fed1e31c04f7df05b260f18861da06
For details of the PFI campaign see:
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=fe5efeece01739221bde275645c7137a
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=4fee2032ddc705cb8741043eacfa54d8
http://www.walker4worcester.com/articles/view_detail.php?id=fdf36c0f304d5e38158ecb6aed852a2e