Record numbers at New Cross A&E

There were 4,327 attendances from March 4 to 17 – the highest fortnightly figure at any time in Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust's history.

Numbers have soared in the past year, putting the department at breaking point.

Patients now regularly fill the corridors on trolley beds, and three or four-hour waits for them to get a bed in the unit are commonplace. The 4,327 figure works out as 309 patients per day and is 322 higher than for the equivalent two weeks in January, traditionally seen as a busy time of year.

A number of factors have contributed to the rise, including the fallout from the Stafford Hospital scandal and a lack of alternative healthcare options for patients.

To ease the strain, the trust has sanctioned a £1.5million upgrade which will add 12 new beds in the coming months. This will precede a new £25m A&E department – four times the size of the current one – being opened in 2015.

• Stretched to the limit - 24 hours in New Cross Hospital A&E

At a meeting of the trust's board yesterday, chief executive David Loughton said: "We've got to take the pressure off the system – it's far too pressured at the moment.

"I'm very unhappy with the situation. Sooner or later, someone is going to die in a corridor."

"It's not a good experience and we're running a lot of risks. But what we're doing, on balance, is safer – to get patients off the ambulance and into the corridor."

The board's newly appointed chairman, Richard Harris, said: "We're doing our very best to cope. There are wider health economy issues that need to be addressed."

The trust is bracing itself for a six-figure fine next month when the Wolverhampton City Clinical Commissioning Group comes into force on April 1. It will be fined for its rate of getting ambulances back onto the road within one hour. On recent performance that could lead to a £750,000 fine.