HOSPITAL chiefs in Worcester are already planning ahead for winter and how to avoid the struggles of last year.

Wards came under immense pressure last winter as prolonged cold weather and outbreaks of norovirus stretched them to breaking point.

The pressure was most severely felt in emergency departments. Worcestershire’s A&E departments failed to meet their waiting time targets for the first three months of the year and senior doctors eventually hit out at the strain on the system, issuing a chilling warning that patient safety could no longer be guaranteed.

It may seem a long way off to most of us but winter on the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust calendar starts in less than 60 days. And bosses there are predicting this year will follow the trend of recent winters and bring a huge peak in the number of admissions and severity of conditions presented.

The trust has just detailed its work-in-progress winter plan to keep our hospitals working and ensure patients receive safe and timely care even as the pressure rises.

Key parts of the plan include increased seven-day working in areas such as radiology and plans to over-recruit medical and surgical staff. This will help provide resilience and flexibility to match staffing to predicted peaks in demand, particularly over bank holidays and the traditional hot-spot of New Year’s Eve.

Up to 24 extra beds can be opened at both Worcestershire Royal and Redditch Alexandra hospitals depending on the trust’s level of escalation, while all non-urgent elective surgery will be suspended at the sites between Christmas Eve and January 5 to create extra capacity for emergency demand.

There is also a proposal to establish a “transitional facility” somewhere central in the county, most likely Droitwich or Bromsgrove, between January and the end of March to provide medium and long-term care outside the acute setting.

Another important element of the plan is the new Worcestershire Hub initiative – a county-wide plan to monitor pressure in the healthcare system and ensure patients are moving through the system and not “bed blocking”.

Chief operating officer Stewart Messer said the trust is doing everything it can to ensure the plan works not just on paper but in reality, with staff carrying out “internal stress testing” and playing out scenarios such as wards being closed by norovirus or 11 ambulances suddenly turning up at A&E.

He said: “It is still summer and I hope that gives assurances we have been planning robustly and learning from last year.

“Partnership working and learning some of the lessons from last year to maximise flow and use all the capacity in the system is key to maintaining and delivering patient safety this coming winter.”

Initiatives such as opening up extra beds will rely on financial support from commissioners, who have been involved in county-wide planning discussions but are yet to announce their winter funding plans.

Mr Messer said: “I am relying on commissioners standing shoulder-to-shoulder with us on delivering some things.”