Bid to ease pressure at A&E

Ambulances could be diverted from A&E to a pioneering walk-in-health centre in Wolverhampton under new plans to take pressure off hospitals.

The Phoenix Centre, in Parkfield Road, Parkfields, could take some patients who do not require the kind of critical emergency care provided by hospitals such as New Cross, in Wednesfield. 

Wolverhampton Primary Care Trust, which runs the centre, would join forces with West Midlands Ambulance Service bosses to run the project.

The scheme could also see health workers go out to treat patients at their homes.

A meeting of the board of directors of Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust heard last night that anything up to 25 per cent of people taken to hospital by A&E could be treated by other means such as at home or at community health centres.

It has also been announced that the hours of the centre, which has treated more than 16,000 people since it opened last year, are likely be extended by the summer. 

Nurses at the centre treat an average of 50 people a day for a range of common ailments including coughs, colds, stomach upsets and minor injuries. 

The service is currently open Monday to Friday from 11am to 7pm, including bank holidays, but revised hours would see the centre open an hour earlier every day.

No date has yet been agreed for the launch of the new times.