New fears over Stafford's County Hospital as staff shortages hit critical care
The critical care unit at County Hospital has been closed several times in the past fortnight while staff have been sent to Stoke to cover for workforce shortages.
Whistle blowers at the Weston Road site have expressed concerns the four-bed unit would shut for good.
Support Stafford Hospital campaigner Julian Porter said he had been contacted by half a dozen employees in the last few days worried about what was happening.
He said: "This is not acceptable for the patients of Stafford and I think it needs highlighting.
"The trust will say it is not affecting beds across the system but there are supposed to be four beds in Stafford.
"It means patients will have to go elsewhere and there is no back up for the A&E."
Mr Porter told the Express & Star he often received anonymous messages from staff making claims about the hospital, but added it was unusual to get so many saying the same thing.
He said: "I have had around half a dozen messages from staff about this saying things seem to be getting worse.
"They are not happy. I am hearing from people I have never spoken to before and don't know.
"They are very, very concerned it will be closed forever.
"I have been accused of trying to scaremonger in the past but this is not a case of that at all.
"Something appears to be very wrong here."
The critical care unit at County Hospital caters for level three patients - on a rising scale of one to four - which are classed as 'high dependency' and require one member of staff for every two patients.
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust confirmed the unit was closed last Wednesday as well as the two previous weekends.
When closed, up to two members of staff are transferred to Royal Stoke.
Mr Robert Courteney-Harris, Medical Director, said: "The trust operates a single critical care service across both of its hospitals, with intensive care and high dependency services at Royal Stoke and high dependency services at County Hospital.
"These combined services are managed together to ensure patients are treated in the right environment."
Royal Stoke has 46 critical care beds across six pods and caters for people in the level one category 'intensive care' who require one member of staff per patient.
Typically there will be around 170 nurses at the site.
