Dr Layla McCay, policy director at the NHS Confederation, which represents the entire healthcare system, said the situation had become so serious that “all parts” of the health service were now “burdened”. This will have a “direct impact” on staff ‘s ability to cope with care delays, he added, as well as on the ongoing provision of emergency and urgent care. The alarm went off after a large ambulance company, the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), which covers 7 million people in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Sussex and Surrey, declared a critical incident after the “extreme pressures” on forced to give priority to patients. with life-threatening diseases. At the same time, six hospitals across Yorkshire issued a joint warning to people to stay away from emergency departments, except for “real, life-threatening situations”, as the increase in the number left some patients waiting up to 12 hours. “With almost 20,000 people in a coronavirus hospital in England, these latest critical events underscore how the pressure on our health services is once again rising,” McCay said. “Ambulances, A&E departments and first-line care providers across all NHS departments are in high demand. “Healthcare leaders and their exhausted teams are doing what they can to provide patients with the treatment they need, but with 110,000 vacancies in the NHS, they also need urgent government support to address severe labor shortages. “With one in 13 people now positive for Covid and the incidence continuing to rise in the elderly as we learn to ‘live with Covid’, there will be an immediate negative impact on the NHS ‘ability to deal with waiting lists.” Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said NHS trusts “across the UK” were under “enormous pressure” from the growing number of people with Covid-19 in hospitals, the sheer number of beds are busy, staff absences and severe labor shortages. “Trust leaders and everyone in the NHS are well aware of the impact of delays and tackling them is a top priority,” he added. SCAS announced a critical incident on Wednesday after a huge volume of messages the previous day and asked people to call 999 only in case of life threatening or serious emergency. Mark Ainsworth, business director at SCAS, said: “We have declared a critical incident in the early hours of the morning due to the extreme pressures on our services. “This was related to the level of demand with the high volume of calls received during the day and at night and the increasing challenges for the release of some of our ambulances from busy hospitals. “This in turn affects our ability to get crews back on the road to respond to patients.” Hospitals across West Yorkshire and Harrogate, meanwhile, an area of more than 2.5 million people, meanwhile, said the current pressures had left them with no choice but to prioritize patients who present with acute illness or injury. The West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT) said the latest emergency department figures show a 14.2% increase in attendance, compared to the same week last year. Dr Andrew Lockey, an emergency medicine consultant at the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our hospitals are extremely busy and people have to wait a long time to see them. “In the last two weeks we have faced enormous challenges with the sharp increase in the number of people attending accidents and emergencies. “This puts extra pressure on our teams that are responsible for treating patients with serious and life-threatening conditions.”
