Nottingham trust declares critical incident due to A&E pressure

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital, has declared a critical incident

A hospital trust has cancelled a number of operations and declared a "critical incident" due to A&E pressures.

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust said a "large number of very poorly people" were turning up at A&E with flu and injuries associated with the cold weather.

The trust said the demand was "causing very long waits" for patients.

Despite some cancelled operations, day surgeries went ahead, hospital bosses said.

'Sincerely apologise'

Nottingham University Hospitals medical director, Dr Keith Girling, said a number of planned operations, where patients require a stay in hospital, will be postponed to prioritise patients with the most urgent need.

"We regret that this will impact on patients who were due to receive planned care over the next few days and sincerely apologise to all those affected," he said.

"These appointments will be rescheduled as soon as possible. If we have not contacted you directly, please attend your appointment as planned.

"Our staff are working tirelessly during a period of exceptional pressure on our hospitals and I want to thank them for their continued hard work and dedication to our patients."

The NUH critical incident comes in a week during which two NHS strikes are planned.

Royal College of Nursing members are walking out on 20 December and East Midlands Ambulance Service is striking on 21 December.

'Patients in corridor'

Dr Girling told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that A&E was "one in one out".

"We have got a number of patients in the corridor and that's far from ideal," he said.

"Very sadly, we have had to defer some operations today because we have had to use beds in some surgical wards for medical patients."

Speaking of the strike action, he added: "It's going to be a very difficult week, we are absolutely sighted of that.

"The teams are doing a fantastic job, they are working hard to give patients the best care they can.

"The big ask is if families can support patients that don't need social care as soon as they are ready to come out, that would be really helpful to us."