Planned operations postponed as Nottingham University Hospitals declares 'critical incident'

Nottingham University Hospitals has declared a 'critical incident' because of "exceptional pressures" on its staff and services.

It means a number of planned operations, where patients require a stay in hospital, are being postponed to "prioritise patients with the most urgent clinical need."

Officials said the declaration has come about as the Emergency Department is seeing large numbers of patients, which is causing "very long" waits.

Dr Keith Girling, Medical Director, said: “Our staff are working tirelessly during a period of exceptional pressure on our hospitals and I want to thank them for their continued hard work and dedication to our patients.“Over recent days we have seen a large number of very poorly people arriving at our Emergency Department who need to be admitted to our hospitals suffering with respiratory conditions, such as flu and trauma injuries due to the freezing weather. This demand is causing very long waits for patients to be seen – particularly at our Emergency Department."

He continued: “As a result, we are taking additional steps to maintain patient safety. We will prioritise those patients with the highest level of need and ensure that we continue to manage emergency care. This means that a number of planned operations, where patients require a stay in hospital, will be postponed to prioritise patients with the most urgent clinical need. Day case procedures, where a bed is not needed, will continue.

“We regret that this will impact on patients who were due to receive planned care over the next few days and sincerely apologise to all those affected. These appointments will be rescheduled as soon as possible. If we have not contacted you directly, please attend your appointment as planned.“We continue to work with our health and social care partners and ask our communities to help ease pressure on our hospitals, particularly assisting with the timely discharge of relatives."

He concluded: “We know that most patients want to return home as soon as possible, especially at this time of year. If your relative is due to be discharged from hospital and needs to be collected, please do so as early as possible. This will help our teams and free up a hospital bed for someone waiting to be admitted.”The Trust says emergency services remain open and people should continue to come forward as normal in emergency and life-threatening cases - when someone is seriously ill or injured, or if their life is at risk.