University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) has this week declared a critical incident due to “significant pressures”.
Challenges faced
UHL said that its hospitals were “seeing a higher than usual number of patients needing care”. Leicester Royal Infirmary’s emergency department, and Glenfield Hospital’s clinical decisions units were said to be “particularly busy”.
The high number of patients was causing difficulties for ambulance handovers, and limited ability to discharge patients to onward care or home.
UHL said that some patients will experience longer-than-expected delays in receiving attention.
What is a critical incident?
Critical incidents are events outside the normal experience that post actual or perceived threats that can overwhelm a Trust’s coping resources.
A critical incident can be declared by an NHS Trust when it is facing extraordinary pressure. It tells staff, bosses, and patients that the hospital will not be able to function as usual.
A critical incident can last hours, days, or even weeks.
When a critical incident is declared, it allows a trust to put in place extra measures to safeguard the health and safety of patients. Such provisions could include seeking mutual aid, cancelling all training to allow redeployment of staff, not taking bookings for non-urgent transportation, and increasing third-party provider provision.
Declaration of critical incident at UHL
On Wednesday 9 October, UHL declared a critical incident as a result of the pressures and high number of patients needing care.
It said that declaring a critical incident would allow it to take additional steps around how services are managed so it could “maintain safety for patients and help staff manage the growing pressures.”
People are being urged to only attend hospital emergency departments for life-threatening illnesses or injuries and which cannot be treated by other means, such as by calling 111.
However, it has reassured that essential services remained fully open for anyone who needed them, and urged anyone with a pre-arranged appointment in the coming days to still attend unless they were told otherwise.
UHL apologised to anyone affected by delays.
The Trust last declared a critical incident in January 2024 when hundreds of people were left waiting for hours to be seen.
Medical Director at UHL, Andrew Furlong, said:
“The safety of patients and the wellbeing of our colleagues remains our top priorities as we work together to care for the people who need us. Please only attend the emergency department for life-threatening illness or injury that cannot be treated elsewhere. This allows us to treat those who are most seriously ill. If you need care urgently but it’s not life threatening, please call NHS 111 or use 111 online where trained advisors can support you in getting care in the right place for your needs.”
Advice to patients
UHL has issued the following advice to patients:
- Only call 999 or come to the emergency department in a life or limb threatening emergency.
- When you need urgent medical care but it’s not an emergency, please visit NHS 111 online or call NHS111 for advice on how to get the care you need at any time of day or night. If needed, they can book you an appointment or arrival time at one of several urgent care services across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland.
- Think Pharmacy First. Pharmacists can help with many illnesses. They can give advice and treatments that don’t need a prescription. Many can also give you prescription medicine for some conditions, so you don’t need to see a GP.
Comment
As we move into the colder months, we know that pressures increase on NHS trusts every year. More and more people need treatment and care at this time, and the resources quite simply are not there.
For Leicester hospitals, it is concerning to see that the pressures have overwhelmed the Trust already and shows the extent of the pressures faced by our hospitals.
Whenever such a situation arises causing the need to make a critical incident declaration, there will be significant concerns about the impact to patient safety at this time and the potential for this to have a wider impact to more patients and parts of the Trust than just emergency services.
It is very much hoped that taking the step to declare a critical incident will enable the Trust to better focus on the areas of most need, and to do everything they can to ease the situation and recover back to normal functioning as soon as possible.
How can we help?
Danielle Young is a Legal Director in our Medical Negligence team, which has been ranked in tier one by the independently researched publication, The Legal 500.
If you have any questions in relation to the subjects discussed in this article, then please get in touch with Danielle or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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