PROGRESS is being made in a long-delayed project revamping hospital services in Worcestershire but work remains to be done, a senior health boss has said.

Although it was previously hoped the project dubbed The Future of Acute Hospital Services in Worcestershire would be completed by the end of this year, it has been plagued by delays and last month it was announced a public consultation into the plans – originally slated for this September –would not be held until after the general election next May.

Speaking at a meeting of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – the organisation running Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital – on Wednesday, November 26, project director Lucy Noon said some progress had been made over the past month.

“All of the actions that were identified by NHS England in August have been addressed or are in the process of being addressed,” she said.

“We have undertaken more than 50 pre-consultation events. These have been very positively received.

“We have targeted these at those people who will be most affected such as older people, the homeless, teenage mothers and those with mental health problems.”

She added one of the areas where work still needed to be done was the issue of transport between the three hospitals, and a sub-committee had been set up made up of members of the project’s board, Worcestershire County Council and other organisations.

“There was a lot of work done early on in the project around how people get to hospital,” she said.

“It was noticed that people living in the more deprived areas with specific health needs were more likely to be affected by the plans.

“We serve a very rural population and some people do have problems.

“We hope by the time we go to consultation we will have some guidance on how we are going to address that.

“We need to keep listening to people who have these problems.”

She added the West Midlands Clinical Senate had visited sites run by the trust with one more scheduled for next month and was expected to present its findings in February.

The project is intended to allow the trust to continue to offer the best quality care to as many patients as possible in the face of increased lifespans, falling budgets and increased demand.

Among the proposals being examined are to set up a networked Major Emergency Centre at the Royal where the most seriously ill or injuries patients will be taken, but keeping the Alex’s A&E department open for less serious incidents.

It has also been proposed to centralise consultant-led maternity services at the Royal while setting up a stand-alone midwife-led birth centre in the north of the county.

For more information on the project visit www.worcsfuturehospitals.co.uk.