MORE support emerged today for the senior health official who has resigned amid marathon delays at her hospital's emergency department.

Val Doyle, chief operating officer at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, quit five months after saying she would leave the trust is she could not bring improvements.

She blamed long commuter journeys and the need to see more of her family as the main reasons for her resignation.

As trust performance director Vanessa Scott moved temporarily into the post, Mrs Doyle won sympathy from the hospital's leader of the Royal College of Nursing, who said the problems could never have been solved overnight.

RCN branch senior steward Chris Bourne said: "The A&E department is being squeezed between a complex range of different problems and it is questionable whether Val Doyle had to go as it was impossible for any one person to bring a quick solution.

"The fact is it will take a long time to sort out and we will continue to work with Vanessa and the trust in their attempt to do that.

"The pressures range from cutting bed numbers, a workforce redesign, an increasingly ill population and not the level of primary or community support that this hospital needs."

Mrs Doyle's departure comes on the eve of new programme to make 81 more beds available in nursing homes and community to try and ease pressure on the Hartshill complex.

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