John Radcliffe Hospital: Patients using A&E hits record high

The number of patients at the JR's emergency department was "unprecedented", Oxfordshire's urgent care director Lily O'Connor has said

The number of people being treated or waiting for treatment at a major hospital's A&E department has hit a record high.

Lily O'Connor, Oxfordshire's urgent care director, said 157 patients were in the John Radcliffe Hospital's emergency department in Oxford on Monday evening.

She said despite the "unprecedented" demand staff had coped well.

But they were working under "persistent pressure", she added.

While she said demand "fluctuates" at the county's other hospital, the Horton General in Banbury, staff at the A&E there have regularly been placed "under significant pressure" over recent months.

The John Radcliffe has been "under significant pressure since August" across all ages, and demand for children's services has got "particularly bad" over recent weeks.

"When we hit 100 [patients] it's pretty tough on everybody because we have got a large volume of people to see at a single point in time and [are] trying to ensure that everyone who needs immediate care gets it.

"To get 157 in the early evening [on Monday] was unprecedented at the John Radcliffe," Ms O'Connor told BBC Radio Oxford.

The Care Quality Commission said last month that the health and care system across England is gridlocked because patients cannot access the support they need.

Its annual report said the problem was resulting in long waits for ambulances and in A&E departments.

Pete Macgrane, Oxford Health's clinical director for community services, said that trust is also seeing increased demand.

"Everything that we are doing is trying to make sure that we can support patients where at all possible and where it's clinically the right thing to do to remain within their own homes," he said.