THE Alexandra Hospital has a bright future – that was the verdict of interim chief executive Chris Tidman, who admitted to having an emotional attachment to the Alex after starting his professional career there.
The loss of services at the Alex – major trauma, maternity, in-patient childrens admissions, as well as the now notorious issuing of bad news not once, but twice at 5pm on a Friday, the use of the word ‘temporary’ for what proved to be permanent changes, have all happened while he has been in charge.
However he said the Alex was an absolutely integral part of the trust’s plans and was not facing closure.
“The Alexandra Hospital is safe and is a very important part of the trust. We need it to thrive,” he said.
“We have only ever spoken about what we take away from the Alex – this is about what we want to bring. Our ambition for the Alexandra site is to ensure that 95 per cent of the patients who currently receive their care from the hospital will continue to do so – it is only those requiring life changing care who will receive it from Worcestershire Royal.
“We are bidding for £18 million to upgrade our theatres at the Alexandra Hospital and to improve our endoscopy services,” he added.
The meeting heard that there is a nationwide shortage of doctors and nurses and, although the trust is £59 million in the red Mr Tidman insisted that decisions taken to withdraw services from the Alex were due to concerns over patient safety – caused by the lack of proper medical cover – rather than finance.
Chief Nurse Jan Stevens, who lives in Redditch, added that the trust is currently short of 200 nurses – better than many other trusts – and they were doing everything they possibly could to recruit more.
Speaking after the meeting panel member Dr Graham James, consultant head and neck surgeon said: “I’m not sure we managed to get all the message across that we wanted.
“There are a lot of positive developments that we are making in Redditch, it’s just that these changes don’t happen over night – this process has been going on for the last five, six years and its being led by the clinicians and externally validated three times by people who are very supportive of what we are trying to do.”
