Walsall Manor Hospital takes on extra medical staff to cope
Walsall Manor Hospital has taken on more radiologists to cope with a rise in demand for the service that would have resulted in a two-week wait for outpatients, it has emerged.
A meeting of healthcare chiefs was told that the trust's performance and monitoring system had flagged up problems regarding requests for non-emergency scans, including GP referrals.
Since the start of this year the radiology department has employed two extra staff to help reduce the waiting times for the images to be done and the results reported back to doctors.
Walsall Healthcare Trust Mr Amir Khan said: "It's very important to stress that this situation is not affecting emergency cases or patients admitted to the hospital. Scans for those patients are done there and then.
"We have now made an investment in radiology because the demand has increased around staffing. We have had two new people this year and there are plans to take on an additional one per year over the next two years.
"We realised that by the end of April there would have been a two-week reporting period."
He added that there was a national shortage of hospital radiographers and the situation was not unique to the Manor.
Also at yesterday's trust board meeting chief executive Richard Kirby said he did not know when the hospital would receive extra cash to help cope with an influx of patients from Staffordshire.
After the announcement by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust would be scrapped aound £14 million is to be ploughed into Manor Hospital to cope with the influx of patients from the neighbouring county under re-organisation of key services. Mr Kirby said based on Mr Hunt's report there should be a release of the resources that the Mid Staffs trust special administrators 'put in their plan' for the Manor to take on Staffordshire patients.
"I am hoping that we can get confirmation very quickly of how we will be getting that resource and be told the mechanism of how to get hold of it," Mr Kirby added.
They were also told there was no update on the Walsall's application for foundation trust status. It comes after it was announced yesterday patients are being urged only to only visit Walsall Manor's A&E if their condition is serious or life-threatening as staff struggle to cope with an influx of people.
