Unit at King's Mill Hospital offers 24-hour care to ease pressure

The unit at King's Mill Hospital would usually close at midnight

A hospital unit that offers same-day treatments to avoid patients having to stay overnight has started running 24-hours a day.

The Same Day Emergency Care Unit at King's Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, previously opened from 07:00 until midnight.

Since Sunday it has been open all night to temporarily help manage pressures.

Sherwood Forest Hospital Trust said it had been a vital step in reducing the amount of patient admissions.

The whole of the Nottinghamshire health and social care system declared a critical incident on 29 December.

This was due to the pressures on emergency departments and the high number of patients waiting to leave hospital.

Dan Exell said they were doing everything they could to "make every bed count"

The Same Day Emergency Care Unit was designed to carry out things like blood tests, X-rays and ultrasound scans on the same day that patients arrived at hospital.

Since becoming a 24-hour operation on 1 January the trust said it had treated dozens of patients who came into hospital overnight.

It also helped to move patients from the emergency department.

Dan Exell, a nurse on the unit, said: "Every little really does help when it comes to reducing the pressures we are seeing in our hospitals right now.

"We really are doing all we can to make every bed count."