A new system for treating emergency patients was launched at Stafford Hospital today – in the wake of the damning Healthcare Commission report.

Emergency care was slated in the critical report, published earlier this year. Now hospital bosses have re-worked the system with the aim of cutting down the target for a consultant to see a patient from 24 hours to one hour.

The new working model is part of the trust’s 107-point Transformation Programme published in response to the criticism it received about its care of patients in the Healthcare Commission’s report in March.

The report said that care standards were unacceptable in A&E and emergency admissions during the three-year period investigated. Stafford cardiologist Dr Paul Woodmansey, pictured, said the old traditional model would normally see a consultant catch up with patients during their ward rounds but the new model will see a consultant based in the A&E department throughout the majority of the day – 8.30am to 8.30pm on a weekday.

The consultant, who has been based at the hospital for nearly 14 years, said: “What we wanted to do was move away from that process and bring consultants in to see patients at an earlier stage, the reason being the consultant is the most senior doctor and has the ability to make early decisions about making patients safer and better quicker.”

Four acute medical consultants, who have been appointed at the hospital over the past 18 months, are central to making this happen. There used to be just two.

The new model, which begins as a three-month pilot, will see 13 consultants share evening and weekend duty shifts. Over the weekend, there will be two consultant rounds done each day, one in the morning and the second in the evening, instead of just one round in the morning.

Dr Woodmansey added it would mean Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust would have to appoint more consultants for the changes to be sustainable but said health bosses had been positive about the move.

* Another ward at Stafford Hospital has closed due to an outbreak of Norovirus. People who have recently experienced nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea are askednot to visit wards in the hospital.