A NEW hospital computer system has doubled waiting times for Bromsgrove outpatients, left staff struggling to cope and may be outdated after just two years, a union representative has claimed.

Overworked staff at the Alexandra Hospital, in Redditch, may consider strike action if managers are not able to provide extra staff and terminals to deal with patients efficiently.

The Advertiser/Messenger reported earlier this year that support staff had already faced a 40 per cent increase in their workload from the reorganisation of hospital services in the county.

Chairman of the hospitals joint negotiating committee, Nina Wood-Ford, said the situation had not improved and the new computer system for registering outpatients introduced a month ago had just made things worse.

She said: "It takes a long time to process and queues have doubled in size. Instead of one or two screens to work through, there are five or six. We are overworked as it is.

"Patients are frustrated and quite stressed out by the time they get here."

Six more terminals and the staff to operate them would be needed to restore the service to the same standard as before, she added.

Two extra terminals have been provided but no extra staff have been promised yet.

Mrs Wood-Ford said the system will itself have to be replaced in two years when the new Worcester Royal Infirmary opens.

A spokeswoman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: "As the staff become familiar with the system we expect them to be able to provide an improved service to patients."

She declined to comment on providing more resources, the cost of the system, or whether it was due to be scrapped in two years' time.