Wye Valley NHS Trust has declared an internal incident at Hereford County Hospital due to high demand in its Emergency Department.

The Trust said that it has experienced unprecedented numbers of people attending the department over the last two weeks - with many of them turning up with non-urgent conditions which could be better seen and treated using alternatives to a visit to the Emergency Department.

On one day the Emergency Department had 164 attendances and it experienced a 12 per cent increase in the number of emergency patient admissions to hospital overnight compared to the previous month, with the highest number of emergency admissions reaching 53 patients in one 24-hour period.

“Many of these patients were very poorly and required a longer stay in hospital than expected,” said Richard Beeken, chief executive at the Trust.

“We’re asking people to seriously consider whether they actually need to visit A&E.

“We’re struggling to see and treat people with minor ailments in a reasonable time and would urge people to use alternatives, such as telephoning NHS 111, using the GP walk in centre in Hereford, the Minor Injury Units at Ross and Leominster Community Hospitals, seeing their local GP or seeking advice from their local pharmacy.

“At this moment in time, A&E is only for people who are seriously ill and need urgent care and treatment,” added Richard, who said they were also having many more older people turning up in A&E who had more complex needs and who had to be admitted for treatment.

The Trust is also having to postpone some routine operations.

“We’re sincerely sorry for having to postpone operations. We understand and appreciate the inconvenience this can cause – postponing operations is always a last resort,” said Richard.

Staff at the trust are contacting patients whose operations are being postponed.

The hospital has the power to declare an internal incident if it feels pressures in A&E present a serious threat to the disruption of its services.

It is working with the West Midlands Ambulance Service and the commissioners for healthcare in the county, the Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, to manage the situation.

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