Swansea Bay Health Board has urged people to stay away from the emergency department at Morriston Hospital over the bank holiday weekend.
The health board says that staffing shortages mean the A&E department is only able to provide a limited services over the bank holiday weekend – notoriously one of the busiest of the year for hospitals.
It has also asked people to attend the Minor Injury Unit at Neath Port Talbot Hospital with any minor injuries instead.
Read more: Hospital covid cases milder but NHS staff absence 'a huge issue right now'
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said “staff absence is a huge issue for the NHS right now” on top of about 100,000 vacancies that already existed nationally. You can see the latest on the scale of NHS absence due to Covid in Wales here.
Swansea Bay Health Board posted the warning to stay away from Morriston A&E on its Facebook page.
The message reads: "Due to low staffing numbers impacted further by Covidwe are only able to provide a limited service in the emergency department at Morriston Hospital on December 31 and the bank holiday weekend.
"Please attend the minor injury unit (MIU) at Neath Port Talbot Hospital with any minor injuries.
"The MIU cannot treat patients with symptoms of coronavirus or other illnesses. Please do not attend the unit if you or anyone in your household has any Covid symptoms.
"Don’t forget you can call 111 for urgent advice and to access the GP out-of-hours service when your own doctors’ surgery is closed.
"There is also a symptom checker on the NHS Direct Wales website.
"You can get advice and over-the-counter remedies from your local pharmacy. They also provide certain prescription drugs and pharmacist-only medicines.
"Only call 999 or go to the emergency department if it is a serious or life-threatening illness or injury.."
A health board spokesman added: "People should always only ever attend ED if it is absolutely necessary. We are reinforcing that message now because of the staffing situation (which is by no means unique to us)."
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