Stafford hospital crisis: A&E will not reopen to children this month prompting fresh doubt over its future
A&E services for children will not return to County Hospital this month, it has been announced – while fresh doubt has emerged over whether they will ever be fully reinstated.
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, which runs the Weston Road site in Stafford, last night declared a 'minor injuries' service is expected to be reintroduced by early to mid-October.
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It will mean the children's emergency centre at Stafford will have been suspended for more than a month after the trust temporarily closed it on August 25, due to a lack of staff who are trained in paediatrics and anaesthetics.
Speaking to the county council's Healthy Staffordshire Select Committee, trust chief executive Robert Courteney-Harris said: "80 per cent of children that were seen before were classed as minor injuries rather than illness.
"We think we can reinstate that by the beginning to middle of October. The reason it will take until October is to make sure we have the staff to supplement that service."
However Mr Courteney-Harris admitted he can't 'guarantee' the service will be fully reinstated he said: "I do not know what the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health are going to recommend."
It comes after chiefs visited Southmead Hospital in Bristol to inspect a children's minor injuries unit which operates closely to a full blown adult A&E. For more serious child cases, it remains in the balance whether that level of service will ever return.
Have you had to drive your youngster to a hospital miles away after the unit shut its doors?
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The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Care will visit at the start of November and produce a report on whether County Hospital will have the long-term capabilities to handle critically ill youngsters.
The trust will have the final say on the future of services based on the recommendations in the report. In response to concerns over care for seriously injured children, Mr Courteney-Harris replied prior to the suspension no more than three children a week were considered to be serious enough to be transferred from County Hospital to Royal Stoke University Hospital 17 miles away.
