Staffordshire hospitals declare critical incidents after severe demand
Patients are being urged only to attend A&E at the Royal Stoke and County Hospital in Stafford in serious and life-threatening conditions
Critical incidents have been declared at two hospitals in Staffordshire after experiencing a surge in demand for their services.
The Royal Stoke and County Hospital in Stafford are both said to be experiencing "severe and and sustained" pressure.
Patients are now being urged to stay away from the A&E's there unless they are in a serious or life-threatening condition.
Dr Matthew Lewis, UHNM Medical Director, said: “We are currently experiencing extremely high demand for all our services. Both Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital in Stafford have been under severe and sustained pressure since the start of the year, but we have seen even greater demands in the last 24 hours.
“We have therefore taken the decision to declare a critical incident. This helps us to take additional measures to maintain safe services for our patients.
“Locally, we are working with our NHS and local authority partners to ensure that people who need hospital and emergency care can get treatment quickly and to identify any additional support that allows us to discharge patients who do not require acute hospital care.
“As anticipated, the pressure is greatest in our emergency departments, which are facing continued challenges as patients cannot be admitted to beds promptly.
“During this time the emergency departments will continue to see the sickest patients first, which means, for some patients, there may be much longer delays than usual.
“We continue to ask the public to help us by only using A&E in a serious or life threatening emergency. When we’re discharging patients, we ask that their friends or loved ones pick them up from hospital as soon as possible and have everything they need at home.
“I would like to thank our staff for their on-going efforts during this extremely challenging period and the public for their understanding and co-operation.”