A health boss said he was concerned about the long waits some cancer patients will face at the hopsital (Image: Google Street View)
A hospital unit that closed a year ago to release staff to deal with the NHS coronavirus crisis could reopen in three months’ time.
Hundreds of people have signed an online petition calling for Cannock Chase Hospital’s minor injuries unit to reopen but a health boss was unable to give an exact date when services could resume.
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It closed as a temporary measure on March 18 2020 to allow staff to care for seriously ill patients needing urgent care at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital.
David Loughton, chief executive of Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, was asked by members of Cannock Chase Council’s wellbeing scrutiny committee about plans to reopen the unit.
He responded: “I can’t give an exact date – it’s probably three months away if I was to guess. In terms of nurse staffing I have got no vacancies for nurses now. The problem is I’m redeploying them on to other things.
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“A lot of staff were redeployed over January and February and we have given them leave. They need to recover from what they have been through.
“I think the biggest staffing problem I will have is in terms of some of the mental health issues. Nobody comes into the NHS to watch people die on the scale they have died.
“Intensive care consultants wake up at 4am and can remember the faces of patients they have told ‘I will put you to sleep now and you may not wake up’. Support is key going forward – I have got three psychologists working with me.”
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Mr Loughton told the committee the Cannock hospital was a “vital part of plans to recover from Covid-19”, but warned it would take some time to get treatment waiting lists back to the pre-pandemic level. The trust has continued cancer treatments and emergency surgery during the past year however, the meeting heard.
He said: “I have done this job for 33 years and this has been the most difficult year we have had. I got called in on March 7 when we had our first Covid-positive patient and on March 8 was the first death – only the fourth in the country.
“I run an organisation that has seen over 850 people die of Covid. That has taken a tremendous toll on the organisation.
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“From a Cannock Hospital point of view, I had to close the hospital because I transferred all the staff to Wolverhampton. I had to ramp up intensive care capacity by 300%.
“I’m in a place now starting to restore services. My key priority for Cannock now is to try and keep it a hospital clean of Covid and ramp up the cover to do elective [planned in advance] surgery.
“People don’t like me saying this but I think it will take us two to three years to get waiting lists back to where they were in February last year. It’s not going to be a quick fix, our productivity will not be where it was before.
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“My biggest concern is the amount of time it is now taking to treat some of the cancer patients is longer than it would be. People are coming forward when they are at stage three of cancer (when cancer may have spread), when we would have picked them up sooner and treatment would have been quicker – and sadly outcomes would have been better.
“We are also seeing some very complex mental health patients coming to A&E who have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act, who are not known to mental health services prior to that.”
Councillor Phil Hewitt said: “You have done an absolutely fantastic job under circumstances that happen once every 100 years. We all know what a great job you have been doing and that needs to be put on record.
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“During lockdown I was unfortunate to have a small injury but went to Lichfield and they were great. It concerned me I had to travel to Lichfield – it was the nearest one I could go to.”
Councillor Andrea Muckley said: “I’m so glad the minor injuries unit is reopening. I think a lot of people are frightened to go to A&E because they may come into contact with someone with Covid. The sooner we can get the minor injuries unit open the better.”
Want to sign up to receive these stories straight to your inbox? It's free and means you'll never miss out on the most important Staffordshire news of the dayA hospital boss has played down fears that a lack of car parking in Cannock could affect plans to expand the town's hospital.
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Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust is proposing to take on services at Cannock Chase Hospital which would see an influx of 200 more staff and an increase in beds and operations carried out as part of the shake-up of troubled Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
Cannock MP Aidan Burley claimed controversial plans drawn up by Cannock Chase Council to build restaurants and cafés on Beecroft Road car park, which is close to the hospital, could affect those proposals.
He said the changes at the hospital would mean more people using the hospital and more people needing to park close by.
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But New Cross Hospital chief David Loughton, who wants to spend up to £23 million revamping the Brunswick Road site, said he did not see the development or current car parking in Cannock as a major problem.
He said: I am confident that one way or another I will be able to sort any issues around car parking so that we can provide the services in Cannock. It comes after more than 2, 000 people signed a petition opposing the plans for the car park to become a shopping complex and market research showed big name stores and developers were not interested in it.
Mr Burley said: I am concerned that this could harm the plans for the hospital. Beecroft Road car park is used by shoppers, council workers and visitors to Cannock Chase Hospital.
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If the council insists on carrying on with this vanity project it could scupper the deal. I understand that residents have contacted David Loughton, the chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, to voice their concerns about the potential loss of parking.
Allport Action Alliance formed last month to call on Cannock Chase Council to drop its proposals to develop the Beecroft Road car park.
Town regeneration boss Councillor Diane Todd has previously said there has been 'scaremongering' about homes being demolished, but admitted it could not be ruled out for the future.
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Under proposals from administrators Cannock Hospital would be taken over by the Royal Wolverhampton Trust with Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust being dissolved.
Mr Loughton would move more inpatient services to Cannock from Wolverhampton with a free shuttle bus between the two towns for patients.
The move has largely been welcomed by residents in Cannock and will see 85 per cent of the hospital used, more than double what it is now.
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Between £60 million and £70m in losses will need to be picked up by the Department of Health if crisis-hit Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust is dissolved under the administrators' plans.
Mid Staffordshire last year needed a Government bailout of £20m, and an investigation by health regulator Monitor found that in order to break even, the trust would need to make £53m of savings in five years.
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