Hospital trusts in Yorkshire have warned patients they may have to wait for up to 12 hours to be seen at accident and emergency (A&E), after a sharp increase in demand.
The West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT), which covers six hospitals in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, has issued a plea for patients to attend their local A&E only in “genuine life-threatening situations”.
The warning came after the clinical director of a hospital in Lancashire said patients were routinely waiting more than two days for a bed, with staff left “crying with frustration and anger”.
“For the past few months we have on a regular basis had more than 50 patients waiting for a bed and that wait being in excess of 60 hours,” Graham Ellis, the clinical director of Royal Preston hospital told the hospital trust’s executive team in a letter leaked to the Health Service Journal.
He added: “We have witnessed senior experienced staff crying with frustration and anger as they have had to resuscitate patients in the waiting room, examine in the viewing room and CT changing room, seen patients leave the department as they have been pulled out of a cubicle to allow someone more unwell to be treated in their former space and patients die without the dignity of privacy.”
Latest A&E attendance figures for the WYAAT hospital trusts showed a 14.2% increase in attendances compared with the same week in 2021.
Dr Andrew Lockey, a consultant physician in emergency medicine with Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS foundation trust, said: “It’s really important that people only come to an accident and emergency department if they really need to. Our hospitals are extremely busy, and people are having to wait a long time to be seen.
“Over the past two weeks we’ve faced huge challenges with the sharp uplift in the number of people attending accident and emergency. This places additional pressure on our teams who are responsible for treating patients with serious and life-threatening conditions.
“If you are unwell and are unsure which healthcare service you need, call NHS 111. A highly trained clinical adviser will direct you to the most appropriate service.”
