Ambulance bosses hit back at claim patients are taken to 'wrong' hospital

Mark Hackett, chief executive of University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, made the accusation at a board meeting last week.

He stated it is one of the reasons why hundreds of people are being made to wait longer than four hours to be dealt with at Royal Stoke University Hospital.

The claim has been rejected by bosses at West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) who said several factors are considered when deciding on which hospital to attend.

In a statement, the trust said: "We are disappointed to hear the concerns of the chief executive of University Hospital of North Midlands which we believe are completely unfounded.

"It's important to note that when an ambulance crew respond to a patient who requires onward hospital treatment, it's not a case of simply just conveying them to another hospital as Mark Hackett suggests.

"Whilst receiving hospitals consider whether a patients' home address is within their catchment area, the ambulance service must consider the patient's medical needs first and foremost as well as where any previous treatment has taken place, their personal wishes and our own operational requirements to ensure we can continue to respond to 999 calls.

"Despite pressures at many of our hospitals including Stoke, Wolverhampton and Walsall, we continue to monitor and amend our operational requirements to ensure patients get the very best emergency care. The trust hasn't received any complaints from patients in relation to being taken to a perceived 'incorrect' hospital."

Royal Stoke University Hospital in Newcastle-under-Lyme, is around 28 miles from the centre of Cannock while Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital, based in Wednesfield, is just nine miles away.

Mr Hackett had said: "Emergency services seem to be picking up patients from Cannock with things like fractured bones and taking them to Royal Stoke as opposed to Wolverhampton which is what we thought would happen.

"It is happening a lot more now than it used to."

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust was dissolved in November last year and replaced by a new trust named the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust.

Stafford became known as the County Hospital, meaning the names Stafford and Staffordshire disappeared. The hospital's accident and emergency department has been shut to patients between 10pm and 8am since December in 2011.

Hopes were raised for people in Stafford of a return to 24-hour accident and emergency cover at their hospital earlier this year

The University Hospitals North Midlands NHS Trust had previously said there were no plans to restore a full A&E service to the County Hospital in Weston Road.

But in the wake of the General Election campaign, when Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt pledged to return a 24-hour service to Stafford providing it was clinically safe, the trust, which runs the former Stafford Hospital, said that the long-term strategy for A&E in the town will be reconsidered.