Critical Incident Declared at NUH | Latest news

A critical incident has been declared at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) today, Friday 13 February, due to significant pressures across the hospitals.

In the last week, we have seen significant demand on our services, in A&E in particular, which is resulting in lengthy waits for patients. This follows a previous Critical Incident in January, where rising demand, winter infections and staff sickness all led to unacceptable delays.

Why are we in a Critical Incident?

• There has been a significant increase in patients presenting with respiratory issues, which is causing capacity pressures in A&E and on our wards.
• More than half of our adult beds are currently occupied by patients who are over 80 years old, whose health issues can impact them more than younger patients.
• Patients who are safe to return home, almost two wards worth more than we would expect to see, are staying in hospital longer than they need to.
• Patients are having unacceptable and lengthy waits on corridors in A&E, in particular a high number of respiratory patients who awaiting care.
• Staff are working under extreme pressure.

Andrew Hall, Chief Operating Officer at NUH, said: “The pressures we are seeing in our hospitals are significant and our patients are having to wait longer than they should to be seen.

“We have been working tirelessly all week to mitigate the pressures we are currently seeing but this has not had the desired impact, and so we declaring a Critical Incident is necessary to protect patient safety.

“I would like to apologise to all patients who are in our hospitals and are waiting for long periods.

“While staff are doing all they can to help people to be seen quickly and hope to have more than 200 patients home today, we also need the public to help us. Getting patients home as soon as they are well enough to is vital and we would like families and carers to please prioritise getting their loved ones home when they are contacted.

“This could mean collecting them before you are due to finish work, making sure they have their medication ready at home and ensuring they have somewhere warm to go back to.

“Please also consider carefully whether or not you need to attend A&E. If you are in an emergency situation, please still attend. Otherwise, consider if there are other services that could help – your local pharmacy, or calling 111 for advice.

“If you do have an appointment booked with us, please do still attend until told otherwise.”

What are we doing to address the pressures?

• We are creating more bed space for patients who need care, in order to support flow through the hospital.
• Staff are being asked to support us with additional shifts to increase our capacity.
• Staff are working hard to identify opportunities to discharge patients as quickly and safely as possible.
• We are working closely with partners to identify any opportunities to improve patient flow.

How you can help:

• 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.
• Only call 999 or attend ED for serious accidents and for life threatening emergencies.
• Where the situation is not life-threatening, alternative support will be available through NHS111 online or by calling 111.
• Urgent Treatment Centres (UTC) treat injuries including sprains, strains, suspected fractures, bites, cuts, scalds and other non-emergency conditions. Waiting times are usually much shorter than ED
• Pharmacies can help with allergies, constipation, headaches and many other ailments, over 200 pharmacies in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire can provide NHS medicines for seven common conditions through the Pharmacy First service. Depending on your age, this includes Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) in women, earache, shingles, sinusitis, impetigo and sore throats. See the website for details.
• Please do not visit your loved ones in hospital if you have any flu or other respiratory illness symptoms - please wait until you are better to visit them.