Nottinghamshire: NHS declares critical incident amid strike

Hospitals across Nottinghamshire are under "extreme pressure", health bosses said

Nottinghamshire's NHS has declared a critical incident after junior doctors started strike action.

Bosses said the city and county's hospitals were under "extreme pressure" and patients were facing long delays for treatment.

The British Medical Association (BMA) started a six-day walkout over pay at 07:00 GMT on Wednesday.

The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) declared the critical incident at 16:30.

The ICB said there was significant demand for all services with hospitals seeing a high number of patients arriving at their emergency departments.

Dr Dave Briggs, the ICB's medical director, said high demand and shortages of staff had led to long waits for accident and emergency (A&E) patients as well as those being moved on to wards.

Junior doctors started the strike action at 07:00 on Wednesday

He told the BBC some patients were being held for an "extremely" long time in ambulances outside some emergency departments.

Other people with less serious injuries or more minor illnesses were facing waits of seven or eight hours for treatment, he added.

Dr Briggs warned waiting times were likely to get worse through Wednesday night and urged people not to attend A&E unless they had a life-threatening condition or there was nowhere else they could be treated.

He said the NHS had taken "extraordinary" steps to try to ease the situation including asking GPs to support the ambulance service and drafting community nurses into acute hospitals to try to speed up the patient discharge process.

Despite this, the emergency departments at the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) in Nottingham, and King's Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire were still "over capacity", Dr Briggs said.

When should I go to A&E?

The NHS advises patients to use A&E only if they are seriously injured or facing life-threatening emergencies, such as signs of a heart attack or stroke, choking, breathing difficulties, a seizure or heavy bleeding.

It says many people attend A&E with conditions that could be dealt with in urgent treatment centres.

Patients who are unsure what to do are urged to contact the NHS 111 service, either by phone or online to seek advice.

Dr Keith Girling, medical director for Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust, said the QMC's emergency department was "very busy".

He said: "We understand that having to wait can be frustrating and our colleagues are doing everything they can to care for everyone who needs them as quickly and safely as possible. We would like to thank them whilst they work incredibly hard to maintain services for patients in our hospitals.

"We apologise to anyone experiencing delays in their care, and we will continue to prioritise patients with the highest level of need."

The BMA has said the junior doctor walkout will last six days but said it would end the strike early if the government made a "credible" offer on pay.

Ministers have said they are not prepared to negotiate while strikes are ongoing.