Derbyshire health services 'critical' after heatwave

Dr Chris Weiner said the pressure on hospitals was expected to keep rising over the next few days

A "critical incident" has been declared by Derbyshire's healthcare services over mounting pressure, that bosses say was made worse by the heatwave.

A NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board meeting heard there was unprecedented demand on services.

Tracy Allen, chief executive of Derbyshire Community Health Services, said ambulances were stacking up outside hospital A&Es.

Bosses said extreme heat resulted in more respiratory illness admissions.

Dr Chris Weiner, the chief medical director of the board, said: "For every one degree rise in ambient temperature above 29C you might see a 4.5% increase in hospital admissions.

"There is a delay of between three and six days between the rise in temperature and those hospital admissions.

"There was extreme pressure yesterday and there is the possibility that pressure will continue to rise over the next few days."

The meeting on Thursday heard services were already under pressure from Covid-19 and the pandemic backlog.

Tracy Allen said ambulances were "stacking up" outside A&E departments

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said a frequent and ongoing pressure was "bed blocking" - with patients medically fit for discharge remaining in hospital beds because there is not an available care home spot for them - or support packages to look after them in their own home.

This month the Derby and Burton Hospital Trust had 120 patients who were medically fit for discharge.

Ms Allen said they had agreed to buy new beds from private providers to help free up hospital beds at Royal Derby and Chesterfield Royal.

"We know that beds aren't actually the right answer in the longer term but we did agree that we would try to decompress the acute trusts,"

Ms Allen said she hoped that triggering a critical incident would raise public awareness about only attending A&E if you have a serious or life-threatening ailment.