A WORCESTER hospital is at bursting point because of its popularity with patients, says an NHS leader.

Worcestershire Royal Hospital is by far the busiest hospital of the three main hospitals in the county, say senior NHS officials.

Leaders from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust produced a diagram showing three cups of water to illustrate the pressures on the Royal.

The glass representing the Royal was overflowing, the glass representing Kidderminster Hospital was half-full while the glass representing the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch was full but not overflowing.

The diagram was presented to a meeting of the health overview and scrutiny committee.

John Rostill, chief executive of the trust, said: “Worcester is overflowing all the time because it is so popular, the Alex is about right and Kidderminster is under-utilised all the time. We need a more even distribution.”

Mr Rostill said it was like a “jigsaw” in which the pieces – the various services – had to be rearranged in the way which was best for patients because extra pressure on hospitals meant cancelled operations and longer waits for patients in A&E.

One of the ongoing debates is where the radiotherapy unit will go – Worcestershire Royal Hospital or the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.

He said: “We can’t move anything else into Worcester until we move things out of Worcester but we can make more effective use of Kidderminster Hospital such as using it for more orthopaedic work.”

Mr Rostill said one of the challenges was to get people to use minor injuries units rather than go to A&E which helps distribute pressures on the NHS more evenly and help people get the most appropriate care.

“Hospitals should be the last resort not the fist resort for patients,” Mr Rostill said. Extra patients also used to mean more money for the trust but this is no longer the case because of the adverse economic climate, he added.

Harry Turner, the trust chairman, said: “Demand is increasing. The time is right to fix it now because it has the potential to generate patient care issues. We can’t let that happen.”

Steps have been taken to reduce pressure on hospitals. For example the trust has managed to reduce the average length of stay for bowel patients from nine days to five and the length of stay for knee and hip patients from five days to three.

l Your Worcester News reporter was the only member of the media at this meeting.