Thousands more visiting Wolverhampton New Cross A&E

The department saw a significant increase in numbers during February with an additional 2,583 - 17.85 per cent - attendances compared with last year.

Meanwhile last month (MAR), The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust also saw numbers rise with an additional 865 in the first 16 days of the month - a 14.14 per cent increase compared with last year's attendances.

For February, the trust said it was an actual increase of 2,156 attendances excluding February 29 as this year was a leap year.

Gwen Nuttall, chief operations officer for the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, said: "Attendance at emergency departments are rising across the country for various reasons.

"In our case a change in referral pathways from GP's and the Mid Staffs transition has resulted in the rise in numbers we are seeing at the ED at New Cross. Our staff continue to provide high quality, safe care for all the patients that come to the department."

New Cross opened its £38 million new emergency department in November last year.

The department is three times as big as its predecessor and brings all the urgent care facilities under one roof, including dedicated radiology and X-ray facilities.

It boasts 30 treatment rooms for minor injuries, 18 for major injuries and a resuscitation area for adults, as well as a dedicated paediatric area for children.

The hospital had 117,000 visitors to its A&E department last year, but the new department is built to cater for 175,000 a year.

Last month the Showell Park walk-in centre at Fifth Avenue and the Out of Hours Doctors Service, which was based at the Phoenix Centre in Parkfield Road, moved to the New Cross site to be housed above the Emergency Department.

Meanwhile, it was revealed last month that New Cross would be taking on around 500 extra births a year from Walsall Manor Hospital's failing maternity department.

Health chiefs want to reduce the number of births at the hospital after Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Walsall Manor, was put into special measures, after a damning inspection found it was 'inadequate' overall by Care Quality Commission inspectors in January.

Extra midwives have been recruited at Wolverhampton New Cross in a bid to cope with the increase of births to the site.