Extra staff drafted in to help Shropshire's busy A&E departments

Colin Ovington, Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust’s director of transformation revealed that a programme had been implemented at Telford's Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on December 27 to cope with busy A&E departments.

It comes as the trust confirmed that 2,200 people attended the two A&E departments in the week before Christmas as winter pressure increased the demand on services.

The situation has resulted in trust bosses calling on people to seek alternative healthcare unless they are facing a critical emergency.

SaTH said this week’s A&E figures have not yet been collated, but that December 27 had been particularly busy, with some ward staff being temporarily required to work in the departments to cope with demand.

Mr Ovington said: “Our hospitals, along with others regionally and nationally, have been, and continue to be, incredibly busy over the Christmas period.

“Last week we saw more than 2,200 people in our emergency departments and I would like to thank our staff who have worked so hard over this period to ensure our patients are treated safely and with kindness despite these very challenging conditions.

“Wednesday, December 27, was a particularly busy day, due to the large volume of patients in our emergency departments, and for a four-hour period we implemented an internal programme that allows us to call in staff from other wards to ensure patients spend the shortest time in hospital possible before being safely discharged.

“Once again we would ask people to please think carefully about alternative local services, which can avoid what can be a lengthy and stressful visit to hospital. Many conditions really can be seen much more quickly using alternative services and A&E should only be used for the most serious injuries and illnesses.”

Alternative sources of care for non-critical ailments are available at pharmacies, minor injuries units, or by calling 111.

The trust has also said that people can book urgent appointments at GP practices or use the Shropdoc GP out-of-hours service on 0333 2226655.

It added that it was expecting high demand to continue over the weekend because of New Year celebrations.

Meanwhile, nationally more than 3,400 people taken to A&E units by ambulance were forced to wait more than an hour to be seen last week.

Figures released by NHS England show the number of ambulance delays of more than 30 minutes went up by a fifth compared with the previous week, with 14,300 people having to wait more than half an hour compared with 11,900 a week earlier. There were also 30 cases of ambulances being diverted to other hospitals in the week ending December 17.

An NHS England spokesman said: “The recent cold snap has seen hospitals put under pressure, but they are generally coping. Staff are working hard to ensure ambulance hand overs are as smooth as possible.”