People in Cornwall urged to choose right healthcare service

As the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) remains on the highest level of alert, people are being asked to think carefully about where to go if they need treatment.

They have been at Opel 4 since last Tuesday (3 October), which is when "pressure in the local health and social care system continues to escalate leaving organisations unable to deliver comprehensive care".

Dr Mark Jadav is a consultant at the RCH: "For us in the emergency department, Opel 4 would indicate that we were too full or we had too many patients to have to see - more than we would be able to cope with at that point in time. For the whole hospital, it often relates to the number of patients needing to get into hospital when beds are not available for them."

NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly are urging the public to only use the emergency department or 999 for a life-threatening illness or injury.

Dr Jadav adds: "As I'm sure everyone in Cornwall knows, we have been really busy over the last two years in the health and social care sector, in terms of struggling to get patients out of hospital again once they have been admitted and once they're ready to leave hospital.

"This has been going on for some time now and it has got a lot better actually prior to the summer and over the summer things were running pretty well. Here in the autumn we're starting to feel the pressure again and we see that pressure most visibly at the front door, where the emergency department takes patients from the ambulance service.

"Right at the moment, we have ambulances outside the emergency department who are having difficulty to hand their patients over to emergency department doctors because there simply isn't room within the department.

"It's a concern to us, it's a concern to our population, it's a concern to people trying to access the ambulance service. So we're asking people to think very hard about whether they need to come to an emergency department, or should they be accessing an alternative service."

"Choose well"

The NHS is asking people in Cornwall to "help us help you" by choosing the right service:

• Self-care at home. Treat headaches, coughs and colds, small cuts and grazes at home
• Use NHS 111
• Visit your local pharmacy
• Contact your GP practice
• Visit a minor injury unit
• Please only call 999 in a life threatening emergency

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