Hospital drops non-emergency ops to help cut backlog

Worcestershire Royal Hospital will only handle emergency and vascular operations under the plan

Most non-emergency operations will be moved away from a hospital as bosses attempt to cut a backlog for treatment.

The plan by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust will see them switched to the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch and Kidderminster Hospital by June.

The Worcestershire Royal, in Worcester, will only be used for emergency operations and vascular surgery.

"It's vital that we make the best use of all our sites and facilities," trust chief executive Matthew Hopkins said.

The trust has been tasked by NHS England with cutting the longest waiting times including two-year and 78-week waits.

Mr Hopkins told the county council's health and overview scrutiny committee this month they "largely eliminated" two-year waits in September.

In April, 24,000 people were waiting more than 78 weeks but he said they were on course to reduce those to zero next month.

Attention will then switch to cutting 65-week and year-long waits, but Mr Hopkins said their biggest obstacles were staff shortages and strike action.

The NHS trust's chief executive Matthew Hopkins said staff shortages and industrial action were their biggest obstacles in cutting waiting times

A strike for 72-hours this month by junior doctors had caused "significant problems" he said.

Members of the British Medical Association say they will hold a four-day walkout in April in their fight to get a 35% pay rise in England.

They added the increase was needed to make up for 15 years of below-inflation rises, but the government has called the pay claim "unaffordable".

"To be honest the main constraints are our theatre nurses because there is a challenge," Mr Hopkins added.

"As the NHS looks to gear up elective capacity, theatre staff will be the group that becomes the sought-after nurses and allied health professionals."

Vacancy rates for nurses at the trust were also about 8% but a recruitment drive in the Philippines was said to be "going well".

To add to the capacity for surgery, councillors heard two more operating theatres were in the process of being built at the Alexandra to add to seven already in place.

Four more will eventually be built in Redditch but a completion date was not revealed.