Critical Incident Ongoing at NUH | Latest news

The critical incident remains in place at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) today, Sunday 15 February, due to continued pressures across our hospitals.  

The critical incident was declared on Friday due to a significant increase in older patients, who often need to stay in hospital longer than usual, and an increase in those with respiratory problems. 

This increase in demand continues to impact flow through our Trust’s hospitals - leading to unacceptable and lengthy waits on corridors in A&E.  

NUH Director of  Strategy and  Integration  Tim Guyler said: “Since Friday,  colleagues have been working tirelessly to safely discharge hundreds of patients as part of efforts to increase capacity and relieve the pressure on our hospitals.   

“Large numbers of staff have also volunteered to do extra shifts, and I want to thank all of our colleagues for their continued hard work, professionalism, and compassion throughout this difficult period.   

“The situation has improved since Friday, but we still have large numbers of older patient with complex care needs, and we need to further improve our capacity to treat people with respiratory conditions before we can stand down from the critical incident which we have declared.    

“We review this situation several times throughout each day and, with the progress we have made so far, we are confident we will be able to return to normal operations soon.   

“I would like to apologise to any patients who have experienced any extended waits for their care.” 

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.