EMERGENCY gynaecology services in Worcestershire will remain centralised in Worcester for the foreseeable future, it has been announced.

The services at Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital were relocated to Worcestershire Royal Hospital on a temporary basis on Thursday, August 6 over fears there were not enough doctors to cover both sites.

Although it had previously been stated the move would be reviewed on Monday, August 17, this afternoon it was announced the change would remain in force for at least six months.

In a joint statement the county’s three Clinical Commissioning Groups, as well as Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and the programme board managing the long-delayed project reorganising hospital care in the county, said it had become apparent it would not be possible to fill posts at the Alex.

As a result the acute trust is no longer able to run separate gynaecology and obstetrics services at both hospitals.

It is estimated the change will affect about 10 women a week.

Although Health Education West Midlands will not review the possibility of filling the posts at the Alex with junior doctors until February 2016, the acute trust and the CCGs have pledged to reverse the change as soon as possible.

The statement said: “Patient safety is our main priority and this decision has been made in the best interests of patient care.

“We apologise to those patients who are inconvenienced by this temporary change to services.”

It continued the shortage of specialist staff is one of the reasons for the long-running project reorganising hospital care in the country. It is hoped a long-awaited public consultation into the plans will be launched later this year.