A CONSULTANT from Worcester has slated the incompetence of health chiefs in the crisis at Ronkswood.

Anaesthetist Dr Clive Studd spoke as midsummer madness gripped the hospital with every bed full.

He said the service was creaking at the seams during what should be a quiet period.

And he has joined the fears long predicted by campaigners fighting to save Kidderminster Hospital the "parlous situation" will deteriorate further when services are switched from Kidderminster within weeks.

He blamed "incompetence and bungling management" for reducing the hospital "to the level of a Third World country".

Dr Studd raised his concerns following a busy shift at the hospital last Wednesday.

He said eight casualty patients were waiting for an emergency bed, forcing staff to ring round Kidderminster and Redditch for spare beds.

One intensive care patient had to be transferred to Cheltenham General Hospital in the middle of the night because there was no high dependency bed free due to bed-blockages.

Another patient endured a five-hour wait on a trolley.

"It is the middle of the summer - a traditionally quiet period - and last night patients were lying around on trolleys for hours on end and there were no beds at the infirmary at Ronkswood," he said last Thursday.

"I spoke to the medical director Charles Ashton and he said routine surgery was being cancelled.

"If they say there are operational difficulties because we are going through changes then they are not good at managing the changes.

"The question that needs to be answered is 'why did Worcester have no beds last night?'

"How come Harold Musgrove and Ruth Harrison have reduced the hospital to a state of standstill?

"They are pursuing a plan and it has gone horribly wrong.

"It has been predicted that it is going to be a nightmare and that nightmare is upon us."

Dr Studd said health managers were not living in the real world.

A spokeswoman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said the A&E department had an "exceptionally busy" day, with 136 people passing through it.

"Unfortunately there were five patients who did wait much longer than we would have liked in the A&E department before being allocated a bed.

"Traditionally, July and August do not generate such a high demand in emergency admissions as we have been experiencing over the past few weeks and there does not appear to be any reason why more sick people are coming through our doors."