REDDITCH health campaigner Neal Stote has launched a withering attack on the NHS’s handling of the crisis at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust.
He branded the Trust a damaged brand and instead of letting it ‘bumble on’ said urgent action was needed to save it.
“They’ve had an improvement director for goodness knows how long and look, there has been no improvement, in fact it’s gone backwards,” he said.
“The Trust is a damaged brand and that is no criticism of the current management and staff, who must be so disheartened, because they have been left to clean up this mess.”
His comments come after a Care Quality Commission inspection showed that services at WAHT, already branded ‘inadequate’ and placed in special measures, had shown ‘a noticeable decline’.
“It’s a capacity problem,” said Mr Stote, who stood for Parliament in Redditch on behalf of the National Health Action Party.
“Everything has been skewed towards Worcester, it’s under funded and under staffed and finding it harder and harder to find them.
“And they’re guilty of empire building – why do we need a Rory the Robot when there’s already one at the QE? Give people the choice of a properly function A&E and maternity at the Alex or a Rory the Robot and I know which one they’d choose.”
He called for a regional solution involving all the neighbouring health trusts to clear the backlog of waiting times, help with staffing and restore the reputation of WAHT.
“They are bumbling along. You need to work across the NHS to stabilise the service – the alternative is to put it into administration and that would lead to more service closures while they deal with the capacity problem. It’s all up to NHS England but a solution has to be found.”
Mr Stote, former chairman of Save the Alex concluded: “I do remain open to trying again to work with WAHT, our new MP, the three councils and the public not as a campaigner but as a trusted bridge between all.”
Our NHS Worcestershire is holding a march tomorrow, Saturday, in Worcester, gathering at Mealcheapen Street in the city centre at 11am. All welcome.
