THE amount of beds at Worcestershire Royal Hospital’s under-pressure A&E department is to be increased from 18 to 30 in an effort to meet the ever-increasing levels of demand.

The hospital has been struggling under extremely high levels of demand for several months, meaning some patients have had to be treated in the corridor at particularly busy periods.

Now Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has announced a series of measures to avoid this happening as much as possible, including installing 12 new cubicles in the area currently used as the Clinical Decisions Unit, with work due to carried out in the next three weeks.

Chief operating officer at the trust – which runs the Royal along with Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital – Stewart Messer said the problem had been compounded by a frequent inability to transfer patients who no longer needed to be at one of three sites and into a community hospital or social care placement.

“This will complement the hard work being carried out across the health economy to improve the flow of patients through our hospitals,” he said.

“However, we know that despite this work there are still a number of patients who are unable to be discharged from our care into a more appropriate setting.

“It has become very clear that we can no longer wait for the required response to reduce these delayed transfers of care.

“We are therefore increasing the number of cubicles in A&E at the earliest opportunity to ensure that patients receive a quality experience whilst they are with us.”

A number of other units will also be moved around to ensure no services are lost as part of the plans.

Although the trust has repeatedly said treating patients in the corridor is normal practice in busy periods and does not result in a lower quality of treatment as those in standard cubicles, some have raised concerns over safety.

Mr Messer said a number of other measures were also being put in place.

“As well as creating the extra spaces we are going to change some of the ways we work,” he said.

“More emergency patients will be reviewed by specialist senior doctors and we’ll be introducing earlier ward rounds across the hospital to identify patients who can be discharged later that day.”

Other measures being put in place include introducing mobile operating theatres at the Alex in an effort to clear the backlog of patients waiting for a non-urgent operation, which currently stands at 22,868. Recent figures show 2,489 of those waiting for operations have waited longer than the NHS-mandated 18 weeks.

The modular theatre will be used for hernia repairs, gall bladder operations, breast surgery and others and will mean an extra 50 procedures can be carried out every week.

The trust’s consultant anaesthetist and divisional medical director for theatres Julian Berlet welcomed the news.

“Increasing emergency activity across our hospitals has meant that, in some instances, patients waiting for non-emergency elective operations have had their procedures cancelled,” he said.

“By increasing our surgical capacity at the Alex we can reduce the chances of this happening, significantly decreasing the emotional and often financial impact on patients and their families.

“It will also save the trust money and help us meet our 18 week referral to treatment target.”

The mobile theatre, which will be leased for 12 months, will be attached to the main hospital building by a specially constructed access corridor and is expected to open in the spring.

Longer term the trust is also developing a new Urgent Care Centre on the ground floor of a vacant office building next to the Royal and a more drastic expansion of the hospital’s A&E.