A HOSPITAL boss is 'absolutely committed' to making sure emergency patients never receive care in a corridor as the NHS braces itself for another busy winter.

Michelle McKay, chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, made the pledge when she spoke at a meeting of a health watchdog at County Hall on Tuesday, although she could not give a timeframe for when care on hospital trolleys would stop.

The trust has been in special measures since November 2015. Critical reports have followed from the Care Quality Commission, the independent health and social care regulator.

The CQC has rated the organisation 'inadequate' for its emergency care, medical care, services for children and young people and outpatients and diagnostic imaging with some concerns hinging on the volume of patients being cared for in trolleys rather than on a ward.

The trust was given a deadline of September 30 to make 'significant improvement' with another focussed assessment set to take place this month (October) to see whether sufficient progress has been made.

Mrs McKay, speaking at the meeting of the health overview and scrutiny committee, said: “At the moment, on the Worcestershire Royal Hospital site, we are often having people cared for in corridors. It’s absolutely unacceptable. We are moving to eliminate the use of corridors.”

Mrs McKay, who has been chief executive since March, said it was ‘absolutely the commitment’ to stop patients receiving care in corridors but admitted it was a challenge to say when this would be. She also said it was 'hard to answer' when the trust would come out of special measures.

The trust continues to work towards filling around 150 medical vacancies and bosses anticipate filling 40 per cent of these by the end of this calendar year, reducing dependence on expensive agency staff which are known to put pressure on NHS finances.

Around a third of these vacancies have been filled through an international recruitment drive. However, a vacancy rate of around 10 per cent remains.

Mrs McKay also told HOSC that uncertainty surrounding the future of hospital services in Worcestershire had been a driving force in people choosing to work elsewhere.

“The trust in special measures makes it a hard place to work. If you get a chance to work in a place where that isn’t an issue and isn’t far from where you live, you can see the attraction of that” she said.

Work continues to secure £29 million of government funding. The formal funding agreement will be put in place once the trust has completed the final business case later this year.

Some of that cash will be used to create a link bridge between the main Worcestershire Royal Hospital site and the Aconbury wing. However, this is not likely to happen until next winter.

As previously reported some of this money will go towards 81 extra beds and 141 more parking spaces. The trust aims to have some of these beds available by next winter.

However, a £920,000 reconfiguration of the emergency department is underway at the moment which aims to improve the flow of patients through the hospital, reducing the pressure on beds and the need to care for patients on trolleys in corridors.

The hope is that these changes to A&E will be in place by mid November this year in time for the busy winter.