The Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, previously known as Walsall Hospital NHS Trust, was formed in April 2001. It runs Walsall Manor Hospital and provides community services in Walsall. In April 2011 the hospital trust merged with Walsall Community Health. It agreed in July 2015 to join the Black Country Alliance with Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust and Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust. The plan is to create a jointly owned Company Limited by Guarantee which will enable the three trusts to jointly bid for contracts. There will also be some consolidation of administrative functions like payroll, information technology and estates. The trust was the defendant in the legal case of Drew v Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust UKEAT 0378_12_2009. Dr David Drew, a paediatric consultant, claimed that he was unfairly dismissed. The Trust had told him that he "should refrain from any religious references in his professional communications". He refused to accept this instruction and was dismissed. He claimed that he had been discriminated against on religious grounds. The Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed his claim.
Development
In November 2013 the Trust announced that it needed a new A&E department, intensive care unit and expansion of maternity services to deal with rising demand, on top of the £170 million redevelopment completed in 2010. The Trust's board meeting in May 2014 noted it had been forced to “recruit 25 additional staff” to address “a number of issues have arisen as their Lorenzo patient record systems move to business as usual”, including “backlogs, clinic restructuring and un-outcomed outpatient clinic forms”. Problems with Lorenzo were said to have contributed to a 15% reduction in outpatient activity. At the same time the Trust had a 25% increase in emergency admissions, related to problems at nearby Stafford Hospital. It predicts a £9 million deficit for 2014/5. The trust has an apprenticeship scheme for healthcare assistants with 128 participants. It was rated inadequate by OFSTED in January 2019.
Performance
In October 2012 71-year-old Harry Riley fell from a first floor window at the hospital and later died. The Trust was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive and fined £80,000. The trust was one of 26 responsible for half of the national growth in patients waiting more than four hours in accident and emergency over the 2014/5 winter. The trust is not submitting its data for national reporting because of problems with its computer system, but its own “benchmarking” would have ranked it 130 out of 130 in the country for treating referred patients within 18 weeks in December 2015.
