Under-pressure A&E department sends for disaster doctor

Health bosses at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, which has been under severe pressure in recent weeks, were forced to bring in a doctor who is on-call for substantial disasters, to help with problems at their under-pressure A&E department.

The doctor, who is known as a medical incident officer, treated eight patients at Worcestershire Royal Hospital on Friday night.

The move was prompted by demands for action by West Midlands Ambulance Service, which followed extensive treatment delays. A spokesman from the ambulance service called the move “unprecedented” and “not taken lightly”.

The situation is being monitored by the Care Quality Commission.

A senior clinical member of staff from the trust said “The problem at the moment is that the Worcestershire hospital is far too small. They can’t cope with the number of admissions or the number of walk-in patients that turn up in A&E.

“These things mean we have ended up with a crisis in A&E.

“They have now drawn little rectangles into the corridors to signify what is a corridor bed. It’s incredibly stressful. It becomes a Third World situation where only the very sickest patients can be treated properly.”

Patients that were treated by the medical incidents officer included one who was left for several hours following a seizure and another who had a suspected blood clot and had been left in the hands of ambulance staff. Another patient with heart-related pain had been left waiting for five hours, according to ambulance staff.

The Care Quality Commission have said that it has carried out an inspection of the A&E department and would be reporting its conclusions soon.

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), Medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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