Hospitals to increase winter capacity

The hospitals said the beds would be ready in time for the winter

Extra capacity is being found at two hospitals to help reduce waiting times during the winter.

The Princess Royal Hospital in Telford will get an extra 40 assessment spaces, while the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital will get 56 additional inpatient beds.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust said there would also be a new unit in Telford to support vulnerable and frail patients.

Ned Hobbs, the Chief Operating Officer, said the hospitals wanted to reduce the time patients spent waiting to be seen.

He said: "We know that one of our biggest challenges is ensuring that every patient has access to timely urgent and emergency care, whether they walk in or arrive by ambulance.

"We recognise that too many of our patients currently wait too long."

He said people visiting the hospitals should notice "the positive impact of these changes" this winter.

The hospitals said they were also working to "support safe and timely discharges from hospital and deliver more care in the community".

This would reduce the time patients spent waiting in ambulances and hospital admissions, the trust said.

It also said the 40 Telford assessment spaces and 38 of the inpatients beds in Shrewsbury would continue to be available all year round.

The remaining 18 beds at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital would be held back to give patients a place to go when other wards need to be cleaned.