James Paget Hospital lifts critical incident status after emergency department faces 'high demand'

A hospital has stood down its critical incident status after its emergency department faced high demand.

James Paget Hospital in Gorleston, Norfolk, increased its status to critical incident level two on Monday night, with an email to staff describing "long delays in patient handovers".

The email shown on social media added that there was "intense pressure" on bed capacity.

Patients were told to only call 999 or attend emergency departments for serious accidents and emergencies.

The critical incident status came to an end on Wednesday afternoon, having been declared at 5pm on Monday "due to an increased number of attendances at our emergency department and pressure on our bed capacity", said a spokesman.

They added: "We are still experiencing high demand at our hospital, and continue to remind people to only attend accident and emergency if it is a genuine emergency.

"When needing urgent medical care but it’s not an emergency, visit NHS 111 online or call NHS 111 for advice on how to get care at any time of day or night."

Patients with appointments or procedures at the hospital were told to still attend as planned unless they had been contacted directly.

The hospital had earlier said it was "working closely with our partners in the Norfolk and Waveney healthcare system to maximise capacity during this period of high demand".

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