PATIENTS in Worcestershire are being put at risk by continued delays to the project revamping hospital services in the county, a senior health boss has warned.

Earlier this month it was announced a public consultation into the project reconfiguring care at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, Kidderminster Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital – originally slated to begin this September – would now not take place until after next May’s election.

Speaking at a meeting of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust – which runs the three hospitals – on Wednesday, October 29, associate non-executive director with the organisation Professor Julian Bion said he was dismayed by the continued delay to the long-running project.

“These delays are harming patient safety and I don’t think that’s excusable,” he said.

Although it was originally hoped the project would be complete by the end of this year, in the summer it was announced it was being referred to independent advice board the West Midlands Clinical Senate.

As a result the consultation is being delayed until after the election because of ‘purdah’ regulations restricting anything that could influence the outcome of a poll.

But the trust’s senior independent director Bryan McGinity said he was not convinced this was an appropriate reason to delay the project and said he felt NHS England had been “over-zealous” in their approach.

“Purdah is to make sure councils and local government don’t take any major decisions which the new government will be stuck with,” he said.

“I feel NHS England have over-stated what purdah is.”

But chief executive Penny Venables said, although they were not allowed to formally consult, they were allowed to engage with patients to determine their views on the scheme.

The trust’s director of resources Chris Tidman said another impact of the delay was a continued spiral in costs.

“Not only is it frustrating that we can’t offer our very best care bit also the costs are huge,” he said.

“We are also seeing an increasing reliance on temporary staff and this was how this started.”

Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting programme director Lucy Noon said the West Midlands Clinical Senate was due to discuss the project at a series of three meetings – two in November and one in December – and did not expect the organisation to report back until the New Year.

“We are really committed to going out to consultation as soon as we can but we do have to satisfy both ourselves and NHS England that we are in the right position to go forward,” she said.

“We are working very closely with NHS England to make sure the assurance process can happen in February.

“We’ve done an awful lot of work to tick all the boxes but we are not encouraged to go forward in the days before a general election.”

For more information on the project visit www.worcsfuturehospitals.co.uk.