Black Country and Staffordshire A&Es struck by perfect storm

Hospitals across the Black Country and Staffordshire have been besieged with extra patients, leading to two 'major incidents' being declared in Walsall and Stoke.

It reflects the national picture where performance levels have dropped to their lowest levels in 10 years.

Hospitals are supposed to see 95 per cent of patients within four hours but on Sunday just 60 per cent were seen in that time at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital.

And at Walsall Manor Hospital just 73.2 per cent of people were seen in time for the week ending December 28.

But pressures have got even worse in the past week across all of our hospitals. Chief executive at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, David Loughton, said the situation was worse than ever and added: "In many respects it's a perfect storm.

"Money has tightened in public services, council cuts have impacted on social services and at the same time people are living a lot longer."

Patient numbers have gone through the roof at New Cross with more people and ambulances seen than ever before.

Chief operating officer Gwen Nuttall said: "It's extremely challenging for all the staff, patients and relatives.

"Last week was one of the most challenging we've ever faced.

"We acknowledge patients are having to wait longer than they should and that it's a poor experience being treated in a corridor."

At Russells Hall Hospital, which was one of the best-performing in the country in December, chief executive Paula Clark paid tribute to staff.

She said: "My hat goes off to our staff; everybody is rolling up their sleeves and doing their bit to help. In the last week I, myself, have been pushing patients on trolleys and so have many other managers. It's been a real team effort."

The trust that runs Walsall Manor has been fined hundreds of thousands of pounds for failing to hit A&E targets and patients having to wait too long to be referred for treatment.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, says it has been feeling significant pressure from emergency admissions for the last three weeks, prompting them to now declare a major incident.

The trust has already recruited an extra 100 nurses to ease the burden on staff and reduce the costs of temporary workers which regularly hits over £1.5 million a month.

The current strain on resources comes as the hospital set a target from commissioners of reducing emergency admissions by 3.2 per cent – despite a recent annual increase.

Chief executive Richard Kirby said: "The arrangements we have made include cancelling some planned surgery, scaling back trust-provided training and reviewing our outpatient clinics to ensure clinical staff are not taken away from the frontline."

Bosses say County Hospital in Stafford is busier than normal but a major incident has not been declared there. Support Stafford Hospital lead campaigner Cheryl Porter said: "We have been warning for a long time that this scenario could come about. Plans to transfer services from Stafford to Stoke must now be put on hold while the situation is re-evaluated.

"The safety of patients must come first."