'No quick fix' to staff problems at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital
Bosses at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton have said there is no quick fix to their staffing problems.
David Loughton, chief executive at the hospital, said it could take up to two-and-a-half years to solve the issues.
He said across the country, around 230,000 nurses were needed to solve the lack of ward cover. The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust announced earlier this year that they were going to take on 135 nurses and a further 35 midwives to help solve their problems.
Mr Loughton said: "The 135 nurses that we take on will allow us to have one extra nurse on each shift on each ward.
"We have said that every nurse who qualifies at Wolverhampton University will have a job to go into assuming they are up to standard. But once they are trained they need a mentor, so we can only have one of them on each ward.
"What we are ideally looking for is nurses with a few years of experience. There is no quick fix. This is an 18-month, two-and-a-half-year thing."
Mr Loughton was speaking at the Health Scrutiny Panel meeting, where medical director at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Dr Jonathan Odum, was giving a report on the feedback from their urgent and emergency care consultation.
Dr Odum said more than 90 per cent of people who formally replied strongly agreed or agreed with the plans. But there were concerns about the staffing levels and car parking spaces.
