Accident and emergency departments are struggling to cope with the numbers of patients after junior doctors’ hours were slashed by an EU working time directive.

Now injured patients are being turned away from Stafford Hospital and Queen’s Hospital, Burton, to relieve the pressure.

Health bosses in South Staffordshire have now approved a new model of care which will see people suffering minor injuries being sent away from A&E.

South Staffordshire PCT board members were told last week that current A&E services were “unsustainable” due to the working hours limits of junior doctors. Anyone with an injury classed as minor is now being redirected to community hospitals or their GP.

The move is aimed at freeing up doctors’ time in A&E and will allow both hospitals to aim for the four-hour waiting target adopted by the PCT.

The problem has been created by the EU Working Time directive which included junior doctors in its provisions since August 2004. 

Their working hours have been limited by the law first to 58 hours a week and then, by 2009, to 48 hours.