Nottingham University Hospitals have said they faced a significant increase in patients presenting with respiratory issues, causing capacity pressures in A&E and on wards
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A critical incident has been declared at Nottingham University Hospitals due to significant pressure in A&E departments.
The critical incident was announced on Friday after the hospital group saw significant demand on services, in A&E in particular, which is resulting in lengthy waits for patients.
This follows a previous Critical Incident in January, where rising demand, winter infections and staff sickness all led to major delays.
Nottingham University Hospitals have said they faced a significant increase in patients presenting with respiratory issues, causing capacity pressures in A&E and on wards.
More than half of adult beds are currently occupied by patients who are over 80 years old, whose health issues can impact them more than younger patients, they said.
Andrew Hall, Chief Operating Officer at NUH, said: “The pressures we are seeing in our hospitals are significant and our patients are having to wait longer than they should to be seen.
“We have been working tirelessly all week to mitigate the pressures we are currently seeing but this has not had the desired impact, and so we declaring a Critical Incident is necessary to protect patient safety.
“I would like to apologise to all patients who are in our hospitals and are waiting for long periods."
The hospitals said they are working to create more bed space for patients, so the hospital flow can resume.
Staff are also being asked to work additional shifts.
Mr Hall continued: “While staff are doing all they can to help people to be seen quickly and hope to have more than 200 patients home today, we also need the public to help us. Getting patients home as soon as they are well enough to is vital and we would like families and carers to please prioritise getting their loved ones home when they are contacted.
“This could mean collecting them before you are due to finish work, making sure they have their medication ready at home and ensuring they have somewhere warm to go back to.
“Please also consider carefully whether or not you need to attend A&E. If you are in an emergency situation, please still attend. Otherwise, consider if there are other services that could help – your local pharmacy, or calling 111 for advice.
“If you do have an appointment booked with us, please do still attend until told otherwise.”
Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are monitoring this situation closely with NHS England.
“At national level, we are taking key steps to make sure the health service is better prepared than ever to provide urgent care.
“We're investing £450 million to build same day urgent and emergency care centres, upgrading 500 ambulances, and giving NHS leaders on the ground more power to deliver local solutions. We have also expanded vaccination programmes, rolled out AI-enabled command centres and digital triage systems, and increased the use of virtual wards so more patients can be treated safely at home.”
Nottingham University Hospitals said if a relative is due to be discharged from hospital and needs to be collected, please do so as early as possible. This will help teams free up a hospital bed for someone waiting to be admitted.
Only call 999 or attend ED for serious accidents and for life threatening emergencies.
Where the situation is not life-threatening, alternative support will be available through NHS111 online or by calling 111.
