A Nottingham hospital has made a plea to the public as it deals with a "very overcrowded" emergency department. Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), which runs Queen's Medical Centre (QMC) and City Hospital, has issued an important warning over the number of people attending its emergency department (ED) at QMC.
NUH highlighted that as of 5pm on Monday (March 6), it had 230 patients in the department and that some outside of ED were waiting an hour to be taken inside from ambulances. They pleaded for people to be considerate and only attend if facing an emergency.
In a Twitter post, NUH said: "We have 230 patients in a very overcrowded ED. We also have some patients waiting an hour to be taken from an ambulance into ED.
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"This delays those ambulances getting out to 58 patients in the community. Please do not come unless it is an emergency."
The trust has previously had to declare critical incidents due to massive pressures on its services. A critical incident is declared when frontline services are facing intense demand and means non-emergency hospital treatment is halted. The most recent critical incident was stood down by the trust on January 5.
Another Twitter post asked people to use 111 to get help for non-urgent illness and injuries. It said: "Please visit http://111.nhs.uk where trained advisers can help identify the fastest and most appropriate place for you to seek care."
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