Hospitals' A&E departments placed in special measures

Bosses have been ordered to improve after a trend of serious incidents. A report to Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust Board says both departments have had problems with patient flow and lack of beds.

However, at City there are also major concerns relating to the waiting times and inter-departmental delays.

The trust is also failing to meet the "four-hour standard target. The trust has a target where 95 per cent of patients that arrive at A&E need to either be admitted or discharged within four hours.

However, at present the trust's performance for the year to date is 94.45 per cent. This means dozens of people are not being seen within the benchmark time each day.

The hospital's trust board was today due to be updated on progress. The departments were both placed into special measures in June this year by the trust itself.

An action plan is now in place and the trust says progress is being made.

Rachel Barlow, trust chief operating officer, said: "We constantly monitor the performance of all clinical departments across the trust and when one falls below what we expect, we act immediately to ensure all our resources are invested in bringing that department back up to standard."