Plymouth's Derriford Hospital declares 'critical incident'
The Trust says they are experiencing their highest level of COVID patients of the third wave and expect this to increase further
A critical incident has been declared at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.
University Hospitals says it is due to a shortage of beds and that attendance to their emergency department continues to remain high - in what the Trust says is an 'above-average' level of admission.
Bosses say the pressure is also being felt in the region's wider health and social care system.
Deputy Medical Director, Paul McArdle, says the surge of COVID prevalence in the community is making the situation worse - with the hospital having to cancel routine surgery appointments to accommodate COVID patients.
He adds that there were 130 patients in the emergency department at 11.00pm on Tuesday night (24 August) alone.
Jo Beer, the Chief Operating Officer at University Hospitals Plymouth says:
"The Trust entered an internal critical incident on Monday. This is an internal protocol to focus all departments on immediate de-escalation actions whilst in OPEL4 (the highest level of escalation).
"An example action would be the stepping down of non-urgent meetings to release clinical time back to the wards to focus on discharge-dependent actions.
"The incident was declared due to high bed occupancy and a sustained high level of Emergency Department attendance converting into an above-average level of admission.
"We are experiencing our highest level of COVID occupancy of the third wave and expect this to increase further – as a result we have reconfigured our bed capacity to manage both COVID and non-COVID capacity but this needs continual review.
"Pressure is also being felt in the region’s wider health and social care system, this presents some impact on the ability to discharge patients into the community care settings when medically fit.
"Our staff are here to help in an emergency, but the public are asked to consider all options when accessing urgent care, such as accessing NHS 111 as a first point of call.
"In order to continue to reduce our COVID risk, vaccinations are still available at various locations across Devon and Cornwall."
Jo Beer - Chief Operating Officer at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust