Royal Stoke critical incident declared as major A&E warning issued

NHS bosses running Stoke-on-Trent's main hospital have declared a critical incident. The declaration - affecting the Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, in Stafford - follows 'increasing pressure' in the A&E departments since the weekend.

Patients are now being warned of even longer delays than usual at the Royal Stoke as efforts are being stepped up to discharge people to ease bed-blocking.

Latest live delays show patients turning up at A&E can expect to wait over four hours to be seen with 152 people currently in the queue. Meanwhile, patients at Stafford are experiencing similar four-hour delays with 51 people queuing.

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A University Hospitals of North Midlands spokesman said: "UHNM has been under increasing pressure since the weekend with both Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford experiencing an increase in attendances at the Emergency Department who require an admission. We have therefore taken the decision to declare a critical incident.

"This helps us to take additional measures to maintain safe services for our patients and those in the community waiting for an ambulance. We will continue to work with our NHS and local authority partners to ensure that people who need hospital and emergency care can get treatment quickly and to identify any additional support that allows us to discharge patients who do not require acute hospital care.

"During this time the emergency departments will continue to see the sickest patients first, which means, for some patients, there may be much longer delays than usual.

"We ask the public to help us by only using A&E in a serious or life-threatening emergency. It remains vital that people who need care come forward and get it in the usual way – using 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies and 111 for everything else.

"When we’re discharging patients, we ask that their friends or loved ones pick them up from hospital as soon as possible and have everything they need at home. Thank you for your understanding and co-operation."

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