A&E pressure causes ‘critical incident’ in Nottingham
Just to prove this is more than a rural phenomenon and to indicate that I am sure there are many more of these announcements to follow over the winter…. The big issue in rural places is that chronic underfunding of, for example the 7 most rural hospitals in England, means it is impossible to escape from these structural challenges. The long term solution lies in a different approach to the supply and management of clinicians within acute trusts and more and focused investment in primary care. This story tells us:
A hospital trust has declared a “critical incident” because of the “exceptional” pressure on A&E.
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH) runs the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) and City Hospital and has been on OPEL 4 – previously known as black alert – since Monday morning.
On Wednesday it raised the level further.
Some routine operations have been cancelled as the trust prioritises those who need emergency care.
Health bosses do not want to operate on patients who cannot be guaranteed a bed in which to recover.
Lisa Kelly, NUH chief operating officer, said: “This is following a number of days seeing exceptional pressure across the system, with high numbers of very poorly patients arriving at our emergency department.”
She added they were working closely with health and social care partners and trying to discharge patients in a “timely” manner to free up beds.