THE treatment centre at Kidderminster Hospital is being hailed as the "key" to solving financial problems within the county hospitals trust and there are plans to increase the number of operations carried out there by 25 per cent.

The news came as chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, John Rostill, announced he would be moving from his Worcester base to Kidder-minster at the start of June.

He said the trust had managed to balance its books for the past financial year - compared to ending the previous year with a deficit of £12.8million - but added the success had been partly due to accountancy procedures which could not be repeated.

That meant the trust would have to find "a lot more money" in the future, he said, adding it could be achieved by drawing "much more" work, particularly day cases, to Kidderminster.

Wyre Forest MP, Dr Richard Taylor, responded by saying he was "delighted that the county, as a whole, has realised that more work has to be done at Kidderminster to bail out Worcester and Redditch".

He added, however, he did not want the increased number of operations to be confined to day cases and would be pushing for more inpatient services at Kidderminster.

Mr Rostill said he was also deter-

mined to bring more inpatient cases to the centre.

He added: "As has been made clear in the past, there will be the possibility of doing joint replacements at the treatment centre, so Richard Taylor and I don't disagree on that.

"It's just a question of making sure that the environment is completely safe and that we've got sufficient cover to cope with any eventuality and when I'm down there I'll perhaps be able to make that happen a little quicker."

Dr Taylor described Mr Rostill's move to Kidderminster as "great" news, saying it would enable him to see more of the hospital chief.

Mr Rostill said 8,000 NHS operations were carried out in the treatment centre's theatres in the last financial year and he was expecting to hit a target of 10,000 this year.

"We have to increase our use of the treatment centre and it makes sense for me to relocate there," he added. The move would be a three-month trial to see if there were any downsides, but he did not anticipate any.

He said: "The books have got to be audited but we've balanced and that's magnificent. But I have to say that some of the success is down to non-recurrent accountancy moves, which means we still have to find a lot of money this year.

"We have to save money and stop spending and one of the difficulties is we spend a lot of money because we cancel operations in Worcester and Redditch and then have to get them done at enhanced rates.

"By drawing more routine work to the treatment centre we should reduce that."