Staffordshire hospitals declare critical incident amid pressures

Stafford's County Hospital (pictured) and Royal Stoke University Hospital had been under "sustained pressure", the trust said

A critical incident has been declared by an NHS trust running Staffordshire hospitals amid "extremely high demand" for all services.

It said Royal Stoke University Hospital and Stafford's County Hospital had been under severe pressure at Christmas and this was likely to continue into the New Year bank holiday period.

The trust added the move allowed it to take extra steps to maintain safety.

Some emergency department patients would wait more than 12 hours, it said.

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust medical director Dr Matthew Lewis stated both hospitals had been "under severe and sustained pressure" over the Christmas period.

He said: "As anticipated, the pressure is greatest in our emergency departments, who are facing ongoing challenges as patients are unable to be admitted to beds with those patients arriving waiting in a queue to be seen.

"During this time the emergency departments will continue to see the sickest patients first, which will lead to long waits for longer than 12 hours for some patients."

'Extremely challenging'

Dr Lewis said the trust was working with its NHS and local authority partners "to put in place measures to ensure that people who need hospital and emergency care can get treatment quickly".

He added this was also "to identify and utilise any additional capacity to allow us to discharge patients and free up our beds".

The medical director said the trust continued to ask the public to help by only using A&E in a serious or life-threatening emergency.

The trust also requested people's help when patients were being discharged "to ensure they're picked up from hospital as soon as possible and have everything they need at home".

Dr Lewis said: "I would like to thank our staff for their on-going efforts during this extremely challenging period and their public for their understanding and co-operation."