Lincolnshire A&E departments 'overwhelmed and overcrowded'

A meeting heard Lincoln County Hospital A&E was built for 45 patients but was regularly seeing more than 100

Lincolnshire hospital bosses have said they are taking action to stop A&E departments being "overwhelmed" in the county.

A United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (ULHT) meeting heard Lincoln County Hospital was built for 45 A&E patients but was regularly seeing more than 100.

The trust is also oversubscribed on beds with 1,033 open at the moment - over the core of 881.

ULHT said it was working to ensure it has the capacity to cope with demand.

During the meeting, held on Tuesday, resident Vi King asked the panel: "Why are patients not only having to sleep in chairs but on the floor?

"I'm sure board members would not like their relatives treated in this way."

'Overwhelmed and overcrowded'

In reply, Michelle Harris, ULHT Deputy Chief Operating Officer, said "no-one would wish relatives or loved ones" to have to sleep in chairs or on the floor.

"We are taking a number of actions in terms of rapidly trying to improve our experience for patients given the extreme sensitivity of what you've described," she said.

"Some of these things do take a little bit of time to gain traction."

There were currently 142 patients who were "medically optimised" and ready to be moved to non-acute settings but who were still in the hospital, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

This translated back to the emergency department being "overwhelmed and overcrowded", the meeting heard.

It comes as NHS bosses face the start of winter pressures on the service.

Andrew Morgan, ULHT chief executive, told members: "Our trust and other parts of the system in Lincolnshire and nationally remain really busy under significant operational pressure.

"There's a lot of work around trying to put in place appropriate plans in the winter and there's lots of work going on about ensuring ourselves that we have the right capacity in place to cope with demand."