HOSPITALS serving Bromsgrove and Droitwich Spa residents are celebrating a £1.4m cash windfall to boost intensive care and high dependency beds ready for winter.

The injection is part of a £63m Government handout which is being given to hospitals so they can cope with the seasonal rush brought on by the cold weather.

The money means Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, covering Redditch's Alexandra Hospital, Worcester Royal Infirmary and Kidderminster General Hospital, will have eleven intensive care beds compared to nine last year.

The cash will also pay for four extra high dependency beds.

In addition £600,000 has been allocated to provide 'step-down' care in hospitals, private nursing homes and home support.

Health bosses say the windfall will help 'bridge the gap' between hospital and home care.

It means patients taking up a hospital bed but who no longer need that level of care could be sent home, if social care support was available.

The bed would then be free.

Worcestershire Health Authority chief executive Pat Archer-Jones said: "We understand the £600,000 is to be put into pooled budgets between health and social services.

"This will enable us to look at the whole spectrum of care required by patients."

The trust's medical director, Dr Charles Ashton, said: "This is good news for Worcestershire residents and will go some of the way to help ease the pressures our hospitals face during the winter."