'Critical Incident' declared at Derriford Hospital
It's due to staff shortages and increased pressures caused by Covid-19
A critical incident's been declared at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, because of staff shortages and pressure on urgent care services caused by covid.
Jo Beer, Chief Operating Officer of the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust , says there are currently 500 staff off sick for reasons linked to covid, and 99 patients who've tested positive for the virus at Derriford and the trust's other three hospitals.
But she says people shouldn't be worried by this - in a statement, she's said, "We took the decision to escalate to the highest level of internal incident because this allows us to be able to take additional steps to maintain safe services for our patients and help us cope with the growing pressures.
She added, "As the Major Trauma Centre and Specialist centre for the South West, at Derriford Hospital, we receive some of the most acutely unwell patients by air and road ambulance.
"We are running at extremely high levels of occupancy and like a number of other hospitals across the country, we are seeing huge rises in demands for our services at the moment.
"Attendances in our Emergency Department are high; there are ongoing challenges in discharging patients who are well enough to leave hospital, and we are seeing an increase in staff sickness - all of which leads to longer waits than we would like for patients to be seen and admitted.
"We are here to help in an emergency, but we would ask people to consider all options when accessing urgent care, such as accessing NHS111 as a first point of call. We encourage the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and have a flu jab if eligible."