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Bosses fear new 12-hour wait at New Cross Hospital

More patients could face a 12-hour wait for treatment at New Cross Hospital, health bosses said today.

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It came as new details emerged of a recent case which saw a mental health patient transferred more than 100 miles to Stevenage after waiting at New Cross for more than 10 hours.

It was the first time anyone has ever spent so long untreated in the hospital's A&E department, which has been put under unprecedented pressure in recent months.

No suitable secure bed was available for the patient but the chief executive of the trust which runs the hospital, who said he would take the issue up on a national level, could not make assurances that it would not be repeated.

Chief operating officer at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, Gwen Nuttall, said: "They required a mental health bed, but no male beds were available locally. Eventually a bed was sourced in Stevenage. Unfortunately as a result it mean that the patient waited in our department over 12 hours.

"It was clearly very challenging. It is the first time this organisation has had a 12-hour breach – it's very disappointing."

Meetings have since been held between health bosses to discuss the incident.

David Loughton, chief executive of the trust, said: "No-one could give any assurances that this could not happen tomorrow.

"For this poor patient to end up in Stevenage is very poor. I intend to raise this as a national issue." The trust could be fined £1,000 for the breach.

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