Doctors in clinic bid
Out-of-work doctors are offering to set up an urgent care centre at Kidderminster Hospital to offer "better services" and "cut costs".
The team of four doctors say they could treat more patients at the hospital and relieve pressure on the over-stretched emergency and accident unit at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester.
They have put forward costings for the scheme which would create a four-bed unit where doctors could keep patients under observation for up to 12 hours.
This could cut duplication between the minor injuries unit, managed by nurses and run by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust, and the primary care centre, run by Worcestershire Primary Care Trust at Kidderminster, they say.
The offer by the doctors made redundant in Staffordshire is being backed by Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor who revealed yesterday that an official complaint had recently been lodged against the county's primary care trust following the death of a seven-year-old Kidderminster boy.
Dr Taylor said: "I want something done to improve services for common medical emergencies. If there had been a doctor in the minor injuries unit this child might have had a better chance".
He said he feared health officials might drag their feet and "lose the unique opportunity offered by the four doctors".
The medical team say the plan would particularly help people suffering chest pains and possible heart attacks who could be checked, stabilised and monitored for a 12-hour period.
A spokesman for the medical team said: "Merger of the primary care centre and minor injuries unit to form an urgent care centre would cut duplications.
"The systems are intrinsically costly in themselves."
