‘Extraordinary action’ by York Hospital as A & E crisis grows

The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said this evening it had been under sustained pressure for several weeks which had escalated over the double bank holiday period.

This has resulted in today being one of the busiest its two acute hospitals had ever seen.

“We have high numbers of patients in our emergency departments awaiting admission, and we are simply not discharging patients in high enough numbers to create the capacity we need,” said a spokeswoman.

She said this meant additional actions and enhanced mitigations had now been put in place.

“We are taking a series of actions and reviewing planned activity this week to identify where we can redirect staff and/or create additional acute capacity,” she said.

“We are fully aware that taking such action may be disruptive to patients attending hospital for planned care or outpatient appointments and we haven’t made this decision lightly. 

“However, the situation in terms of the pressure on our two emergency departments requires extraordinary action.”

A national newspaper has tweeted that the trust has declared a ‘critical incident, but the spokeswoman said this was not correct.

“However we are actively monitoring the actions we are taking and are keeping this under close review,” she said.

“In the meantime, please help us by only attending our emergency departments if it’s an emergency, such as a life-threatening situation, or a serious injury.

“We urge people to help us by using alternatives such as NHS 111 if they are unsure whether to go to the emergency department. 

“This will ensure that when people need help, they are guided to best possible care and treatment for their needs.  NHS 111 is available by calling 111, free on landlines and mobiles, or by going online to 111.nhs.uk.

“We would like to thank all our staff for their continued hard work and commitment under sustained pressure during this very challenging and difficult time.”