The Royal Stoke issues urgent plea to help ease continued A&E pressure
The emergency department is facing extreme demand with waiting times exceeding 4 hours
Last updated 29th Jul 2021
There's a fresh plea to people across Staffordshire and Cheshire to help ease the burden of pressure on the regions main hospital emergency department.
Demand on services has been at an all-time high recently, with patient numbers and walk-in visits at the A&E at record levels.
John Oxtoby, Medical Director at The Royal Stoke Hospital told Hits Radio Staffordshire & Cheshire News:
"We've had some of the highest numbers that we've ever had in our A&E department, we've had up to 170 people in the department at the same time, which is very big numbers for us." he said.
"So there are some very sick people, but we are seeing quite a few people who are not quite so sick. And who possibly could be looked after and I think better - more rapidly - in other places.
"Where we can we divert them to primary care services, if that's appropriate. But I guess the problem is, that if you have lots and lots of people in the department, it's much more difficult to run efficiently. So it would be best if people don't turn up in the first place, they would save themselves time and probably get a better outcome if they went elsewhere, when when they're not suffering from from genuine emergencies.
"The point is our emergency department is really designed to look after genuine emergencies, I think it provides a fantastic service in those situations - and it's important it doesn't get full up with people who've got lesser conditions."
After what was an extremely busy weekend following restrictions fully lifting on July 19th, the hospital's emergency department published an update on social media indicating pressures were again 'unprecedented' - and called on the public to be patient and only attend in an emergency.
John said: "We're doing everything we can in the hospital to keep our A&E flowing and keep it functioning. We're taking measures in other parts of the hospital to make sure that we have beds and space available so that we can quickly unload into the hospital, those that need to come in. And clearly we're doing everything we can to make sure that our emergency department is as well staffed as it can be to manage the large numbers of patients are coming. Of course, it's not so easy, because because everyone knows we're quite a lot of people not at work for legitimate reasons at the moment often associated with with COVID, etc. But we are doing everything we can within the resources we've got."
Wednesday 28th July saw pressures once again build throughout the day and by 10pm in the evening waiting times were exceeding 4 hours.
Why is the A&E getting so busy?
John explained: "We know that there is quite a high incidence of viral infections, etc, particularly in children at the moment. So, there's more of that type of thing than you'd normally see at this time of the year, and that causes people to come up here.
"I think the other thing is possibly a post COVID effect. I genuinely think that anxieties have been heightened by what we've experienced in the last 18 months, and people are more likely to pitch up here. We know that primary care is also pretty busy and GPs are finding it busy, though, you know, some of the patients who come to us could be seen in GPs, and I think it's important that people try that. But more importantly, that people try and spare their GPs as well, by using 111, or their local pharmacist and some of the other systems that are available."
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