Cornwall's NHS continues to face pressure in to the New Year
The Duchy's health and social care system remains at the highest alert level
Cornwall's NHS are warning patients to only go to the Emergency Department if necessary as they continue to face extreme pressures.
Last month, Cornwall's health and care system raised its alert level to critical incident due to operational pressures.
After Christmas and the New Year, they're describing the winter as 'challenging' as they continue to face higher demand and strain after the holidays.
"Hit quite hard this winter"
Susan Bracefield, Senior Responsible Officer for Cornwall’s System Control Centre - which aims to monitor and ease pressure on NHS services across the Duchy - told us:
"Currently we're on something called system level, which is OPEL Four, something which we thought might well happen because of levels of cold and flu.
"We thought we might be hit quite hard this winter".
Across the South West all hospitals are facing the same extreme pressures as we go into the New Year.
Susan added: "Those who've come to hospital with cold and flu are people that absolutely need to be there, they need support. Either sadly through our intensive care unit or some support on our respiratory wards".
"We've got more of our beds across the community, in our nursing homes and in the hospital are now open. I wouldn't say we're free from infection yet but we're managing it really well".
Our NHS system has launched a New Year 'self-care' appeal after the emergency department and minor injury units saw just over 2,600 people across five days - after Christmas Eve.
They are calling on patients to use the correct services and only call 999 in genuine, life-threatening emergencies.
Susan told us: "Out of hours and NHS 111 are very good sources of advice. If your children are not very well, best to keep them off school and seek help. GP practices are now open and ready for those calls.
"Talk to your pharmacist, they're brilliant. Kernow CIC are running a service between 8AM and 11PM which GPs can refer in to and that's for anyone over the age of five who has a temperature or a sore throat".
What is OPEL Four alert level?
OPEL Four is the current 'Operational Pressures Escalation Levels' of Cornwall's NHS.
This means the pressure in the local health and social care system is continuing to escalate - which means decisive action from the local A&E Delivery Board to recover capacity and ensure patient safety.
According to NHS England, when OPEL Four is declared for sustained periods of time and there's an impact across local and regional boundaries, national action may be considered.