Gloucestershire NHS trust to discharge 140 patients over ‘extreme winter pressures’
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People told to attend A&E alone as acute trust cancels operations, declaring ‘critical incident’ amid rise in flu cases. An NHS trust is preparing to cancel operations, urgently discharge 140 patients and restrict admissions to help it cope with “extreme winter pressures”.
The Gloucestershire acute trust declared a “critical incident” on Wednesday as hospitals in England asked patients seeking medical help to come alone to reduce overcrowding in A&E. Doctors and nurses should try to free up as many of the beds in the hospitals it runs in Gloucester and Cheltenham as possible by doing what they could “where clinically appropriate to maximise the opportunity for discharge and minimise the need for admission”, it told staff in a circular.
The trust is also asking staff to wear a surgical mask in many areas of care in response to the UK-wide rise in flu, which a senior NHS doctor warned would not peak for another week or two. The memo read: “Teams and divisions may need to cancel elective activity where this will either reduce the pressure on emergency pathways or release staff/other resources that will help reduce the pressure. We will need to create more than 140 discharges today and tomorrow.
“This will help to prevent … patients remaining in ambulances for prolonged periods [and] prevents our emergency department from becoming congested, which adds to delays and introduces heightened level of risk … and will pressure our ITU [intensive care] capacity.”.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said flu is putting “extraordinary pressure” on hospitals. South Warwickshire NHS trust also declared a critical incident – an admission that it could not cope – on Wednesday after Warwick hospital A&E became so busy that bosses said only patients with life-threatening emergencies should attend.
