“IF SOMEONE is ill they want their Accident and Emergency department to be five minutes away, not half an hour – this is the 21st Century after all and we are all taxpayers,” said Ali Choudrey, a trustee of Redditch Central Mosque.
He was talking to Neal Stote, chairman of the Save the Alex campaign, who’d been invited to speak at the Jinnah Road mosque over concerns at the level of emergency cover the Alexandra Hospital can offer.
“As far as our community is concerned we wish to offer our strong support to Neal and Save the Alex, which is why we invited him to share his experience with us,” added Mr Choudrey.
Mr Stote addressed a packed hall, giving a brief history of the Woodrow Drive hospital, which opened in 1985, up to its present situation where maternity, the children’s ward and major trauma have been transferred out of Redditch to Worcester.
“You cannot maintain an A&E without all the facilities,” he said.
“It must be able to deal with children and pregnant women, as such it’s very hard to get the staff to work in A&E and the reality is we are in danger of it becoming a minor injuries unit.”
He added that neighbouring trust University Hospitals Birmingham should be allowed to work up a counter proposal to the planned reconfiguration of health provision in the county.
Speaking afterwards he said: “The community does not want these changes. Our centres of excellence are in Birmingham and we do not need another one in Worcester – our main direction of travel is towards Birmingham.”
