ANGRY mums have reacted with fury to plans to move overnight services for children from the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch to Worcester.
The plan would become reality in the preferred model being put forward for the future of acute hospitals in Worcestershire.
This would leave the Alex, for reasons of patient safety, with only an assessment centre where children could be seen and treated before a decision is made on whether to transfer them to Worcester for admittance.
Young mums Lauren Walsh, Ellie Spires and Sharne Robinson from Smallwood were aghast at the news.
“It’s disgusting, a really bad idea, especially considering how far we’d have to go if our kids were in hospital.” said Lauren.
Her friend Ellie agreed: “You could end up waiting hours for a bus, and there’s the cost to consider too – we haven’t got access to a car.”
Sharne added: “The buses really are terrible and if you want to see your baby you want to do so as soon as possible.”
Stephanie Loach walking in Church Green described it as the ‘worst idea she had ever heard’.
“If anything goes wrong we’ll have to travel for miles, you can’t rely on the bus service at all.” she said.
Church Hill mum Faye Walsh sang the praises of the staff at the Alex: “They do a fantastic job and get no credit for it, and it’s ridiculous to expect us to travel all the way to Worcester; using public transport is a joke.”
Her views were echoed by Stephanie Galbraith from Headless Cross: “Children can get really ill really quickly and when mine was sick they thought they’d have to admit him.
“I can’t believe they’d get us travelling to Worcester, there’s only a couple of buses a day and if you miss one you have to wait hours or get a taxi to get home.”
Dr Jonathan Wells, chair of Bromsgrove and Redditch Clinical Commissioning Group said the plan to transfer services was necessary to ensure patient safety, as agreed by an independent panel of experts.
The proposals were currently being considered by the West Midlands Clinical Senate and would then be put out for public consultation before any steps were taken.
“We recognise that the transport situation is a huge problem and a transport committee has been set up to find a solution to this.” he said.
Ellie Spires. Photos by Marcus Mingins 1215033MMR8
Sharnie Robinson. 1215033MMR9
Stephanie Loach. 1215033MMR10
Faye Walsh. 1215033MMR11
Stephanie Galbraith. 1215033MMR12
