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Multiple hospitals across the country have declared critical incidents after emergency departments were swamped by a surge in winter flu cases.
As of Tuesday evening, NHS England confirmed at least a dozen hospitals had declared the health system’s highest alert level as the rise in respiratory cases led to “exceptionally high demands”.
Health services issue critical incident declarations when their services become so overwhelmed they struggle to deliver critical services, risking patient safety. It means the service needs additional staff and support from other agencies to continue to operate.
Some hospitals have also restricted visitor numbers and encouraged people to wear surgical masks to limit the spread of viruses.
NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said frontline staff were under “significant pressure” and demand on services showed “no signs of letting up”.
“There was an average of one visit every eight seconds to the NHS flu advice page in the past week and on top of flu hospitals are also seeing continual pressure from Covid, RSV and norovirus cases, as the ‘quad-demic’ continues to increase pressure across services,” he said.
Sir Stephen said people who need medical support should continue to use services as normal, including the NHS website, GPs and pharmacies. People should call 111 if they needed medical advice, and 999 and emergency departments shoukd still be used in life-threatening emergencies.
Have you been affected by this? email rachel.clun@independent.co.uk
Here’s a list of which hospitals we know have declared a critical incident so far:
- Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Winchester Hospital, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Royal Cornwall Hospital, Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust
- Derriford Hospital, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
- Royal Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Northampton General Hospital, University Hospitals of Northamptonshire
- Kettering General Hospital, University Hospitals of Northamptonshire
- Good Hope Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
- Heartlands Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
- Solihull Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
- Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
- Warwick Hospital, South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust
