HEALTH chiefs say a bigger Worcestershire royal is not the answer to easing hospital pressures – and have vowed to tackle a "culture" of patients staying in for too long.

Bosses at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust say they are intent on driving down the amount of time people spend inside the wards.

It follows a tough few months in which progress over reducing waiting times at A&E took a step backwards, amid a torrid winter period.

Chris Tidman, the interim chief executive of the acute trust, said: "Not for one minute do I think our challenge is to just build a bigger A&E, it's not.

"What we need is a bigger 'front door', as I call it, at the hospital to turn less of those ambulance arrivals into admissions.

"There is a wider culture about people being in hospital for too long - someone might come in for respiratory care and before you know it they are being tested for other things and they've got a heart condition, and so on."

He said most people visiting the hospital would benefit much more from being at home as quickly as possible.

He also praised staff at the site for coming under immense pressure in recent weeks.

The comments came during questioning from county councillors during a meeting of the health, overview and scrutiny panel.

Dr Carl Ellson, the chief clinical officer for South Worcestershire, added: "We've got to get away from this thinking that 'capacity' is just about the number of hospital beds, it's not.

"It's about having skilled staff at the front door who are able to treat people quickly, get them diagnosed and get them back home as quickly as possible."

During the debate some councillors said they were worried about the impact of the South Worcestershire Development Plan, which earmarks land for 28,370 homes across Worcester, Malvern and Wychavon by 2030.

Expanding the royal is something acute trust bosses are calling for anyway, with Worcester MP Robin Walker lobbying Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt over it extensively in recent months.

As this newspaper revealed earlier this week, the trust is now in talks with their counterparts in Herefordshire to see if any services can be brought together to make them more sustainable.

It follows concerns over difficulties attracting staff in some areas.