HEALTH chiefs have blamed alarmist statements about the county health shake-up for undermining their efforts to maintain and recruit staff.

Worcestershire NHS Acute Hospitals NHS Trust chairman Harold Musgrove said "certain people" knocking the changes should realise the damage they are doing.

His comments were made in the trust's Acute Hospital Services Update news-sheet in an article about bed capacity in the county.

Mr Musgrove said: "The management and clinical teams within the trust are making considerable efforts to recruit additional nurses and consultants not just to enhance the number of beds which can be used but also to make real progress in reducing the waiting lists.

"Regrettably we continually face the problem of certain people undermining our efforts by perpetuating alarmist statements and decrying improvements which are being made to Worcestershire's health services.

"Apart from individual or political point-scoring, for whatever reason, this action can only result in high quality staff being reluctant to join the county's hospitals and indeed existing staff not wanting to continue as employees."

He added: "We know we have many challenges ahead but by working against the trust rather than with us to attract more nurses and other clinical staff these individuals should be aware of the damage they could cause to health services and the public within Kidderminster and the rest of Worcestershire."