Stafford Hospital trust third worst in country for A&E waiting times
The health trust that runs Stafford's County Hospital has been ranked as the third worst in the UK for hitting A&E waiting time targets.
Latest figures reveal that in October, County Hospital and Royal Stoke Hospital failed to deal with more than one-in-five patients within four hours - 80 per cent at County and 78 per cent at Royal Stoke.
It means the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust is the third worst in England. The national target is 95 per cent.
As revealed by the Express & Star earlier this month the organisation has already blocked all staff from booking weeks off around the Christmas period to combat winter pressure.
In a further move it has confirmed that two wards will be opening up at Bradwell Hospital in Newcastle-under-Lyme which will accommodate patients who are well enough to be discharged from hospital freeing up beds for new people arriving via A&E.
Marcus Warnes, accountable officer for the Staffordshire Clinical Commissioning Groups, said: “The CCGs continue to work with our community service providers and the local authorities to ensure that the services people need to get them home are in place.
"However, despite additional capacity coming on line in the community and within people’s homes throughout November, acute beds within UHNM remain full with all escalation capacity frequently being utilised.
"The decision to temporarily reopen some of the beds at Bradwell has been made in light of these extreme pressures.
"This is a short term measure whilst the remaining community services set out in the Winter Plan come online.
"The care that will be provided in the wards will not be the same as previously provided at Bradwell and the wards will be wholly run by UHNM.
"The beds will temporarily close again once current pressures ease. The CCGs are not providing the funding to re-open the beds.
"Funding has been made available from the additional £350m made available nationally to support winter pressures.
"The CCGs will continue to commission rehabilitation services as part of the Discharge to Assess programme from its community providers.
"No final decisions about the long term future of the wards at Bradwell or the services to be provided from them will be made until after the formal consultation on the Future of Local Health services which will take place next year.”
