Nottinghamshire health service declares 'critical incident'

Some non-urgent operations are being postponed to prioritise urgent and emergency care

Health bosses in Nottinghamshire have declared a "critical incident" due to unprecedented pressure on services.

They said hospitals were seeing "significant levels" of Covid 19 and high numbers of patients with other conditions.

NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire said there were extended waiting times to access beds within its hospitals.

As a result, some non-urgent operations, where patients need to stay in hospital, are being postponed.

NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire said: "We regret that it has been necessary to take this step, but it is important that we focus on patients needing urgent and emergency care as a priority.

"If you are not contacted directly about an operation being postponed, please continue to attend your appointment as usual."

Health bosses also said there was a difficulty in discharging patients due to a lack of available space in the care sector.

Analysis

By Rob Sissons, BBC East Midlands Today health correspondent

"Critical incident" may sound like NHS jargon but the reality is simple and stark. It is a clear warning that the health and social care system is under severe strain.

Against the backdrop efforts have to be redoubled to get patients out of hospital but that is a problem at the best of times with difficulties getting care packages sorted, pressures on finding community beds and shortages of social care staff in many settings.

Most worrying of all is the fact this is happening now in summer usually a quieter time for the NHS when it can usually plan for the strains of winter and staff get some respite.

There are lots of factors that lie behind all of this - difficulties getting patients out of hospital, staffing shortages, patients accessing A&E when they could be dealt with appropriately elsewhere.

The backlog of NHS work, which was building up even before the pandemic, is going to take years to clear. This means some people are having to access more care because they have not yet had treatment.

Difficulties accessing GP services also mean some people may not be getting the early interventions they need.