MORE patients from Worcestershire who suffer serious injuries will be transferred to a new trauma centre in Birmingham, saving more lives.

Under the plans more patients who suffer serious injuries in Worcestershire, for example in car accidents, will be transferred directly to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham rather than being treated locally at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester or the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.

The changes, which are being driven by the Department of Health, were discussed at a meeting of NHS Worcestershire at Kidderminster Town Hall.

Simon Hairsnape, managing director of NHS Worcestershire, said about 75 patients who would ordinarily have gone to the Royal and about the same number who would have gone to the Alex would be treated instead at the QE, which would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week as a trauma centre.

The changes are expected to save between 45 and 60 lives a year in the region and also reduce the level of disability from trauma injuries.

Experts say the move will develop a trauma centre where there will be experts in burns, neurosurgery, chest surgery and intensive care in one place.

The Royal and the Alex would be designated as trauma units for stabilising patients and will continue to see some patients who self-present, which can happen, particularly with stabbings and shootings.

At the moment there are fewer than 2,400 trauma cases in the region a year, of which 704 are ‘major’.

The new trauma centre will take an extra 1,700 patients a year from the region as a whole and about 170 from Worcestershire.

The new plans are scheduled to cost Worcestershire between £275,000 and £375,000 a year.

Dr Jonathan Leach, medical director and director of primary care, said trauma patients from Worcestershire were already transferred to the QE. But this move will increase the number taken there directly.

Patients from Worcestershire are scheduled to be taken to the trauma centre from July next year.

There are several options on the table for trauma units across the unit but all of them involve University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which manages the QE, as a trauma centre and Birmingham Children’s NHS Foundation Trust as the paediatric trauma centre.

The total cost of developing the trauma centres will be between £7.3 million and £9.8 million, depending on which of the four options is chosen.