Three large hospitals serving South Holland are creaking under pressure this week due to an extremely high number of patients.
Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital at King’s Lynn are on black alert and Peterborough City Hospital declared an internal major incident – meaning things are exceptionally busy in their accident and emergency departments and beds are at a premium.
Planned operations have been cancelled and people with non-urgent needs are being asked to make use of GP surgeries, walk-in centres, pharmacies and NHS 111.
All three hospitals are still dealing with emergencies, but “bed-blocking” – inpatients unable to be discharged due to adequate aftercare not being in place – has added further pressure.
On Monday about 70 patients were “medically fit” to leave Lincolnshire hospitals, but were unable to.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, which runs Pilgrim, was forced to plead with staff to return early from leave over the festive period.
Director of operations Michelle Rhodes said: “We have a high number of very sick patients on our wards with complex health needs.
“In the 14-day period over Christmas and New Year, ULHT admitted 2,708 people, which is 583 more than the same period last year.
“The quality and safety of patient care is the Trust’s number one priority. To help us concentrate on the patients with the greatest health needs, we are postponing some planned operations. This allows us to increase the number of available beds for our sickest patients and draft in doctors and nurses onto the wards. A&E remains open as usual but is very busy.
“We ask people to only attend A&E with serious or life threatening illnesses and to seek alternative support for on-going problems or minor injuries. Those who attend with minor conditions will still be treated, but potentially will have long waits. We urge everyone to think twice before they go to A&E – if it’s not serious or life threatening, you shouldn’t be there. Many illnesses can be better treated by visiting your local pharmacy, calling 111, visiting your local GP, or GP out of hours services, or attending a walk-in centre or a minor injuries unit.”
Queen Elizabeth Hospital has been on black alert since Friday. The situation is reviewed on an hourly basis, but on Tuesday there was no imminent change expected.
A spokesman said: “We are almost at capacity and the A&E department is very busy, but we are certainly not turning anyone away.”
And at Peterborough, 17 operations were cancelled across Monday and Tuesday in order to ensure beds were available for emergencies.
A spokesman said: “We have a larger than usual number of really sick patients.”
Neil Doverty, chief operating officer at Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, apologised to people who had had operations cancelled and paid tribute to staff whose “commitment and efforts” had prevented the situation from escalating further.
