Staffordshire Hospital Trust Declares Sixth Critical Incident This Year Amid Rising Pressures

A hospital trust in Staffordshire has announced a critical incident, marking its sixth declaration of this kind this year. This announcement, which covers both Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford, comes as the University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) trust has experienced increasing pressure since the weekend, according to its bosses. Both hospitals were facing a surge in A&E admissions. Officials stated that declaring a critical incident would assist staff in taking additional measures to maintain safe services for patients and individuals awaiting ambulances. The trust had previously declared five critical incidents between January 30 and July 9. In a statement, the hospital trust said: “We will continue to work with our NHS and local authority partners to ensure that people who need hospital and emergency care can get treatment quickly and to identify any additional support that allows us to discharge patients who do not require acute hospital care.“During this time the emergency departments will continue to see the sickest patients first, which means, for some patients, there may be much longer delays than usual.” Members of the public were urged to use A&E only for life-threatening emergencies. Hospital chiefs added: “It remains vital that people who need care come forward and get it in the usual way – using 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies and 111 for everything else.”