UNDER pressure health chiefs have been handed nearly £1million by the Government to try and ease A&E pressures this winter.
Worcestershire Royal Hospital will receive £920,000 from a Department of Health fund set up to ease pressures at hospitals across the UK.
In total 70 hospitals will receive funding from the £100million pot of cash.
The county’s A&E unit will receive the funding in time for this winter, in order to prevent the severe delays and heavy demand the hospital experienced last year.
The Department of Health has said the money will be used by hospitals to meet the 95 per cent standard of admitting, transferring, or discharging patients within four hours by ensuring patients are treated in the most appropriate setting.
This is a target which Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Worcestershire Royal, hasn’t hit for more than two years.
Pershore’s MP Harriett Baldwin said: “I am pleased that this money has been confirmed early this year to help the Trust make its plans.
“I have supported a broader bid to invest cash to allow the permanent expansion of the Emergency Department and I met with the Trust’s new chief executive to hear her plans for securing improvement in performance.
“We are all behind the hard working doctors and nurses working for our local NHS and I hope that this extra cash will help relieve a little of the annual winter pressure.
“Nevertheless, we must repeat the message that it is important that people only attend A&E when there is urgent need for help and to use GPs and the local minor injuries units for treatment where at all possible.”
