THE LEADER of Bromsgrove District Council has told The Standard she would be backing Redditch Borough Council’s motion to disband the Worcestershire Acute Health Trust (WAHT) unless something positive happens to improve the situation.
Coun Margaret Sherrey was speaking just days after the motion, calling for ‘WAHT to be broken up as soon as possible’, received cross-party support and was voted through unanimously by members of the Redditch authority.
She said the saga had been going on for far too long and something ‘revolutionary’ was needed to sort it out.
“I want to know there will be an A&E in Redditch because when the new houses are built and there are people living in them, we will need it more than ever.”
The leader of Redditch Borough Council, Coun Bill Hartnett has said he would now be approaching the leaders of both Bromsgrove and Stratford district councils, and their MPs, to seek their support for the motion too.
WAHT was recently branded as ‘inadequate’ by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission and is almost certain to go into special measures whereby other top performing trusts will come in to deliver a degree of expertise.
In addition WAHT is currently running at a projected loss of £61 million for this financial year, and recently closed the maternity unit at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, which serves north Worcestershire and large parts of Stratford district, giving only six days notice.
In addition it transferred emergency gynaecology care to Worcester.
Amongst of number of criticisms the CQC found the trust’s mortality rate ‘significantly higher than expected’ while its emergency departments were consistently failing to meet national targets.
