Royal Cornwall Hospital emergency department in 'dire straits'

Many of those attending the emergency department should have gone to minor injuries units or rung 111, said the medical director

Staff at the Royal Cornwall Hospital are struggling to cope with unprecedented demand, says its medical director.

Alistair Grant said the emergency department (ED) had been coping with 80 people waiting for treatment, twice the maximum capacity.

Many of those patients should have gone to the minor injuries units or rung 111, he said.

Mr Grant said there were also issues in discharging patients who had recovered.

He said there had been a gradual increase in the number of people coming to ED at the Truro hospital in the past two weeks.

'Completely unprecedented'

"We have had waiting times of up to eight hours and problems with ambulances being held because we can't get people through," he said.

"It's completely unprecedented and we aren't alone in this, this is a South West wide issue."

ED staff had been advising some people to attend minor injuries units in Camborne and Redruth.

"We are still getting people who don't really need to be there and it's leading to significant overcrowding," he said.

And he urged people to call 111 first to direct them to the "most appropriate service".

GPs would also "know what services are available locally", he said.

Pressure had also been building on beds in the hospital by patients who no longer needed hospital care, but could not be moved back into the community because of lack of care staff.

"We are going round the wards asking relatives if they can take patients home while the hospital is in such dire straits," he said.

The hospital had 17 coronavirus patients, including two in intensive care, and that was expected to "gradually increase over the next couple of weeks", he said.