ALL but one of the vacancies caused by the shock resignation of five emergency department consultants working at hospitals in Worcestershire have been filled, but there are still concerns say the chairman of the Save The Alex Campaign.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust was thrown into turmoil in February when five A&E consultants – including the entire emergency team at Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital as well as one other from Worcestershire Royal Hospital – handed in their notice on the same day.

In a statement issued earlier this week the trust announced three of the four vacancies at the Alex had been filled and plans were in place to recruit to the final post.

However, it has emerged that only one of the three is a consultant. The other two are locums who will get training to become consultants.

This follows the appointment of Dr Jules Walton to the post at the Worcestershire Royal last month.

Speaking to the BBC Neal Stote, chairman of the Save The Alex Campaign, said the announcement was good news in the short term but raised a lot of questions.

He said it was unclear where the replacements are from, if they are substantive, and most worryingly that they don't appear to have the proper training.

He also said there would be a gap between when the current consultants leave and the replacements start, which is expected to be August, subject to agreeing notice periods with their employers.

The trust said it had secured an experienced agency consultant to work at the Alex between June and August.

Although the trust initially refused to disclose why the consultants had resigned, it later released a damning open letter from the four from the Alex – named as Richard Morrell, Sarah Crawford, Christopher Hetherington and David Gemmell – in which they claimed the trust’s management had “undermined” services at the hospital.

Labour's parliamentary candidate Rebecca Blake said: "My main concern is whether the reasons sited by the four consultants for leaving have been addressed? Such as tolerance of A&E overcrowding which is harmful to patients, that the downgrade of Redditch A&E isn't workable and the rotten culture in the trust which doesn't act on staff concerns."