The Trust say they have been under increasing pressure since the weekend with both Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford experiencing an increase in attendances at the Emergency Department who require an admission. They have therefore taken the decision to declare a critical incident.
Declaring a critical incident helps the Trust to take additional measures to maintain safe services for patients and those in the community waiting for an ambulance.
They say they will continue to work with 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 them 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.
The public have been asked to help by only using A&E in a serious or life-threatening emergency. 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.
When they discharge patients, friends or loved ones are asked to pick them up from hospital as soon as possible and have everything they need ready at home.
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