IT’S a critical issue for parents in Redditch and Bromsgrove: In an emergency if their child is ill, where should they go – the Alex, Worcestershire Royal or the Children’s Hospital?
In theory, if they were in an ambulance, they should either be going to the Royal or the Children’s, but this week local MP Rachel Maclean caused a storm when she said children were still being taken by emergency crews to the Alex.
The Save the Alex campaign were quick to point out the MP had got it wrong, but in the chaotic world of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, it turns out both Save the Alex and Mrs Maclean are right.
In the last 12 months the Alex has treated 116 children brought to it by ambulance, this is despite a request from WAHT asking West Midlands ambulance Service to take sick children to either Worcestershire Royal Hospital or the Birmingham Childrens Hospital.
How could this be happening?
A Trust spokesperson said: “Children are assessed by ambulance crews using an agreed triage process. Where it is safe and appropriate they can be taken to the Alexandra Hospital for treatment.
“This would apply to children who can be treated and sent home the same day. For more seriously ill children, they will be taken straight to Worcestershire Royal Hospital.
“Where children are brought to the Alexandra Hospital Emergency Department in other circumstances – for example by their parents – they will be treated on site if it is safe and appropriate. If not, arrangements are in for them to be taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital.”
Neal Stote, the former chair of Save the Alex said: “Parents are being put in an impossible situation.
“This is a critical issue and yet it has been muddied further by the Trust and it puts the ambulance crews under enormous pressure to make the right decision.”
Mrs Maclean said: “My number one priority and concern is, and always has been, for the residents of Redditch and that children are treated promptly and in the best place.
“I am told that where it is safe and appropriate poorly children who can be treated and sent home the same day can be taken to the Alexandra Hospital for treatment, and I totally trust staff at the Ambulance Service to make the right assessments for our children.”
