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Walsall Manor Hospital: A&E proposal to help extra 8,000 patients

Bosses at Walsall Manor Hospital have said the site will be able to cater for an extra 8,000 A&E patients a year if multi-million pound funding is secured.

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Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is preparing a business case that would see its emergency department expanded over the next two years.

Bosses want to loan £17.5 million over the period for the project, which it is hoped could be completed by early 2019.

The trust says its emergency department has seen a significant increase in the number of patients through its doors due to changes at neighbouring trusts and the current environment creates additional difficulties because it is too small.

Currently, the emergency department is able to cater for 79,000 patients a year but chiefs declared an expansion would enable staff to deal with an extra 8,000 – around 22 additional patients a day.

In January last year, a damning report published by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission branded emergency services as 'inadequate' stating bosses did not have 'strategic plan' for how the department would grow and improve.

While the Manor is expected to see additional A&E demand when the Midland Metropolitan Hospital in Smethwick opens.

Mark Sinclair, trust director of organisational development and HR, said: "Our emergency department needs to expand to create a better environment for both our patients and our staff and this is an issue we have been highlighting for some time – well ahead of our CQC (Care Quality Commission) inspection which identified the same concerns.

"While the extremely busy periods we have been experiencing over the last couple of weeks tend to bring this to the fore, it is a year-round challenge. When the department was first established, circumstances at neighbouring trusts were very different. We need to expand to cope with the rise in patients that we are currently experiencing as well as the additional demand we expect when the Midland Metropolitan Hospital opens its doors in Smethwick."

He added: "An expansion will allow us to cater for an additional 8,000 patients a year, compared to around 79,000 currently. When we have finished working on our funding bid, which will be submitted to NHS Improvement, we can then work on a business case with a view to construction starting at the end of this year or at the beginning of 2018. The project would be completed early in 2019.

"To ensure minimal impact on the existing A&E we would be looking at an extension which will allow staff and patients to continue to use the department while work is ongoing."

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