Torbay Hospital medics urge people to visit only in a life-threatening emergency
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust has issued a warning as its Emergency Department becomes extremely busy with patients requiring urgent care.
Amy Jones, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, has urged people only to visit A&E if they have a life-threatening emergency.
She said: "Today at Torbay and South Devon we are facing a very busy day, we are facing a huge amount of patients requiring urgent and emergency care.
"We're urging everybody to think carefully before attending the emergency department about whether or not you need to be seen at an urgent or emergency basis or whether or not you would be able to access another service that would be able to help you.
"We appreciate that there are challenges across the whole of the system with GPs and the 111 service becoming somewhat overwhelmed but we urge you, if you can, to go online and use the NHS 111 app or NHS online services.
"Please feel free to dial 999 in an emergency but please try and make sure that this is a genuine emergency.
"I'd also like to encourage parents with young children to access the HANDI app, which has got significant resources and help for parents with small children.
"We're here if you need us but genuinely I want people to think about whether this is an urgent emergency or whether their care could wait and they could access another service."
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