Nottingham University Hospital declares critical incident | UK | News
Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) trust has appealed publicly after declaring a critical incident due to “serious and sustained pressure” on its services. Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust said increased demand since Christmas, winter sickness and staff illnesses had caused “significant and unacceptable delays” to emergency and hospital services.
The trust has urged the public to only attend A&E in the event of a genuine emergency or serious accident as services struggle to cope. The move comes after four hospital trusts in the south-east of England declared critical cases on Monday following a rise in complex A&E admissions.
The statement comes after four hospital trusts in the south-east of England declared critical incidents on Monday following a “surge” in complex A&E admissions.
Nottingham University Hospitals Chief Operating Officer Andrew Hall said the trust was facing “pressures like never before”.
“Despite our teams working tirelessly, demand far exceeds our capacity,” he said: “Declaring a critical incident is not a decision we have taken lightly, but it is necessary to protect patient safety.
“I am very sorry for the bad experience this has caused and would ask everyone to treat our staff with kindness during this extremely difficult time.”
Speaking on its Facebook page this afternoon (January 13), the trust said the A&E department at Queen’s Medical Centre, which is designed to treat around 350 patients a day, regularly sees more than 500 patients a day.
A total of 550 patients attended A&E on January 7, the busiest day of the year so far, further increasing the strain on frontline services.
NUH said demand for hospital beds had exceeded all modeling forecasts, leading to unacceptable and long waits in corridors and staff continuing to work under extreme pressure to manage record demand.
The trust said it would now reschedule some elective procedures to free up capacity for the sickest patients.
NUH medical director Dr. Manjeet Shehmar said: “In our emergency department our teams will continue to see the sickest patients first, which means if you go to our emergency department at QMC for non-urgent conditions you will wait a very long time and may be directed to use other services instead.
“We continue to ask our citizens to help us by contacting the emergency service only in emergencies or serious accidents. For all other problems, please call 111 in advance and make sure you are directed to the most appropriate service.”
Patients with scheduled appointments are advised to continue attending as normal unless contacted by the trust, while friends or family are asked to pick up patients as soon as possible after discharge.
