A major south London NHS trust has declared a critical incident due to patient flows within their hospital.

St George’s University Hospitals said on Thursday a critical incident was declared due to “significant pressure on flow within our hospital, and need to discharge a number of patients”, according to an internal memo.

The hospital is a major trauma centre and one of the largest acute treatment NHS trusts in the country, but said it now needed to improve the “discharge of patients across all ward areas”.