NEW plans to make Worcestershire's hospitals more efficient could see wards at Kidderminster Hospital closed for the weekend to "free up staff".

Clinical teams at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust are discussing options to better use hospitals to full capacity and cut costs, which includes holding more short stay surgeries at Kidderminster to avoid patients needing to stay at the hospital over the weekend.

This would mean reducing open hours on certain wards which are currently open 24 hours a day to Monday to Saturday midday.

A spokesman for the trust said: “We are currently looking at ways to make better use of the excellent facilities at Kidderminster, with a view to offering more patients the opportunity to receive their surgery there.

"This is part of a wider piece of work exploring how we can use all the capacity we have across our hospitals more effectively and efficiently to further improve the quality and safety of patient care and bring waiting times down.

"Plans for Kidderminster are being developed with the clinical teams who provide the services there. Our aim is to treat more people there, with a focus on day case and short stay surgery.

"A combination of more efficient booking and management of elective patients, together with the cessation of transferring patients from our other hospitals, means we can avoid the need to keep anyone in the ward over the weekend because we would be able to send them all home safely.

"This would be better for our patients, and would also have a cost saving benefit for the Trust because it would free staff up having to cover the ward at weekends, while still allowing us to increase the number of people having their surgery or other procedures at Kidderminster.

"However, this proposal is being worked through in detail with the clinical teams before a final decision is made by the Trust.”

The spokesman added: "We have no plans to reduce the opening hours of the Minor Injuries Unit at Kidderminster, which is currently open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, nor do we have any plans to reduce the amount of surgery at Kidderminster."