Wolverhampton ambulances diverting to drive down waiting times elsewhere
Thirty-five ambulances were diverted from Wolverhampton to other boroughs in a single week due to NHS winter pressures on hospitals
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust chief executive Professor David Loughton told the annual general meeting held on Thursday that it had among the lowest A&E ambulance waiting times in the region, resulting in crews being sent to help other communities.
The trust, which includes Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital and Cannock Chase Hospital, opened a specialist Ambulance Receiving Centre (ARC) at the city's site in January as part of efforts to get paramedics back on the road sooner to tackle 999 cases.
Professor Loughton said: "The opening of the Ambulance Receiving Centre has made a massive difference. Wolverhampton has always been number one and number two for waiting times when others have had issues, particularly last winter when there were horrendous waiting times.
"Wolverhampton did really well. It's important to get ambulances back on the road. During that time we also got our care co-ordination team back to 24-hour working which made a big difference."
"We have been a victim of our own success is some ways as we got quite a number of ambulances diverted from the area. In one week 35 were diverted."
The meeting heard that the trust saw an £899m turnover including NHS England contract income. Bosses ended the last financial year with a £69m cash balance.
Professor Loughton said that despite financial and staffing challenges the trust had also achieved successes during the past year including the setting up of virtual wards, where hundreds of patients have been cared for at home using NHS electronic equipment run in partnership with Wolverhampton Science Park. A new £1 million MRI scanner has been installed at New Cross.
He also praised the the trust's award-winning endoscopy unit.
Major changes in the running of the NHS have included the establishment of integrated care boards for the Black Country and the merging of Royal Wolverhampton NHS and Walsall Healthcare NHS trusts, where doctors have been working closely together.
Efforts to recruit and keep staff amid the cost of living crisis including wellbeing projects and training opportunities, while a treatment backlog in elective services impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and cancer performance remained a concern for Royal Wolverhampton.
New trust group chairman Sir David Nicholson, who was appointed in April, also praised staff and said: "For training and educating staff, Wolverhampton is well known regionally and nationally, which is important when it comes to recruitment and retention."
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