West Park Hospital suspending all non-emergency activities during Commonwealth Games cycling

There will be road closures from 5.30am until 9pm and Royal Wolverhampton NHS Foundation Trust is holding "complex conversations" with care homes in the area.

Due to the road closures patients will have "difficulty" accessing the hospital as 30,000 spectators are expected to line the time trial route.

NHS bosses discussed the preparations for the games at today's Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust board meeting.

Lead chief operating officer Gwen Nuttall: "West Park Hospital will be affected for three days. All activities will be cancelled on August 4 in the hospital, with the GP practice and other activities impacted.

"Staff will be able to get into work but access for patients will be a challenge. There has not been a huge amount of publicity about this but from 5.30am until 9pm you wont be able to access these closed roads."

West Park Hospital treats breast cancer patients, deals with dietetics, geriatric medicine , inpatient Diabetes and neurology.

Nursing homes in the designated cycling area will effectively cut off and during the meeting it was revealed here were "complex conversations" with the management of those facilities.

A spokesman for the Commonwealth Games said: "On Thursday, August 4 the Time Trial will be racing through the Black Country, leaving West Park in Wolverhampton before heading though the city, into parts of Dudley and South Staffordshire, before returning to the finish line back in West Park.

"To protect you, keep you moving and ensure a smooth operation, in the run up to and during the Games there will be changes to the way you travel and park around the route and some transport hubs."

The NHS are going to introduce "Polyclinics" which will aim to relieve the pressure on normal NHS hospitals and clinics during the Games.

A report presented to the board said: "For the planned road closures; access to and in and out of West Park Hospital, staff being able to attend and park, along with visiting and the delivery of supplies, the Trust is working closely with the Operational Committee for the Games.

"Capacity planning: services have been considering the potential impact, and for Emergency Department a potential increase in attendances from the Games.

"It is anticipated with the introduction of ‘Polyclinics’ for the games this will mitigate against this issue. When reviewing other Olympic Games data

the use of polyclinics has meant that there were not significant attendance increase in local emergency departments."