HEALTH chiefs have drawn up plans to pull the plug on the Accident & Emergency department at the Alexandra Hospital in favour of having a single acute medical site at Worcestershire Royal.
The proposals, described as merely ‘scenario planning taken out of context’ by health chiefs ask for the measures to be drawn up within four months.
In minuted documents seen by the Redditch Standard the Trust’s interim chief executive Chris Tidman is reported as having “discussed the direction of travel for acute medical services within the Trust”.
The document continues: “He recognised that the provision of comprehensive acute services at two sites was unsustainable and agreed that the division should move towards a single site acute medical intake”. It adds that this “was widely endorsed by the Division”.
Mr Tidman (pictured inset) is then quoted as saying this would also help meet the trust’s recruitment crisis.
The revelations sparked calls from the Save the Alex campaign group for Mr Tidman’s immediate resignation and for the Alex to come under the care of University Hospitals Birmingham which has in the past given a commitment to run a comprehensive A&E department at the Alex.
“The idea of this being scenerio planning is preposterous,” said Neal Stote, chairman of Save the Alex.
“This was a minuted meeting and is a total betrayal of the people of Redditch and the surrounding area – what the trust is trying to do is implement the clinical model it proposed back in 2012.”
Under the ‘scenario’ proposals, which closely mirror claims made by Save the Alex on Sunday ( http://www.savethealex.co.uk/downgrade/ ) that the Alex would be downgraded to accept ‘ambulatory care’ patients rather than unplanned, emergency admissions.
If implemented it would mean sick and injured people in Redditch, Bromsgrove, Studley, Alcester, Alvechurch, Feckenham and beyond – a population of more than 200,000 – would have to travel either to Worcester, Birmingham or Warwick for emergency medical care.
The fear amongst campaigners is that although the Trust says it is committed to a two centre A&E model a failure to recruit or attract suitably qualified staff could lead to the Alex unit being downgraded on safety grounds.
One senior medical source said: “The A&E department at the Alex is on its knees. There must be a lot of concern among physicians about how well they are being supported – is it by locums or by permanent staff?”
A trust spokesman subsequently denied all allegations that the trust would in any way orchestrate the closure of A&E at the Alex.
The leak comes at a critical time – the West Midlands Clinical Senate will carry out the first of three visits to the Trust on April 21 to examine the viability of its plan to have two A&E centres.
Mr Tidman said: “We remain fully committed to implementing the clinical model which has been developed by clinicians from across the county over the last 4 years and is timetabled to go to public consultation later on in the summer.
“At the same time, as part of a national Sustainability and Transformation Planning (STP) process, clinicians across the country are being asked to develop a strategic vision for the next 10 years about how services might evolve….our clinicians have agreed to come up with a strategic vision for acute medical services for Worcestershire, that also takes into account how we might work more closely with Herefordshire. At this stage, no five to ten year plans have developed and no decisions or options have been proposed.”
