Shrewsbury NHS trust to recruit staff for new hospital wards

SaTH runs The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford

A NHS trust said it was developing a recruitment strategy to secure staff needed to support dozens of extra hospital beds.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH) was awarded £21.4m by the government to build two sub-acute and rehabilitation wards.

Funds will be used for 32 beds at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and 20 beds at Princess Royal Hospital, Telford.

But critics had cautioned that any new beds would need to be staffed.

Pat Cullen, from the Royal College of Nursing, said the "elephant in the room" was who would staff the additional beds.

"Nursing staff are already spread too thinly over too many patients," she added.

The trust was awarded £21.4m of government funding to create 52 extra beds

The money is part of £250m of funding from the government set to provide an extra 5,000 beds across England this winter, to reduce pressures and lower waiting lists.

Dr Nick White, chief medical officer at SaTH, said he was "delighted" to have received approval to build wards which would help to "alleviate the pressure," seen at the sites during the winter months.

He said the purpose of the extra beds was to provide appropriate "sub-acute care services" on an inpatient basis, for those patients who had already completed acute treatment but still required rehabilitation.

The aim of the new facilities was to "reduce ambulance handover delays" and "emergency department overcrowding," resulting in "fewer delays" for patients waiting for operations, he added.

"In preparation for the new sub-acute and rehabilitation wards, we are in the process of developing a recruitment strategy to plan and secure the range of staff we will need," he said.