hospital board documents have revealed that patients were left for more than 12 hours on trolleys waiting for treatment at Nottingham’s hospitals.
Further, some patients were left in same-sex wards with members of the opposite sex at the Queen’s Medical Centre, due to a high demand for beds.
The findings come after Nottingham University hospitals NHS Trust, which runs both the Queen’s Medical Centre and City hospital, declared an ‘internal incident’ In January this year, after a substantial increase in the number of people coming to A&E departments in the city.
Peter Homa, Chief Executive of the Trust, said: “The cumulative effect of a number of factors led to the busiest winter on record for our hospitals.
“Emergency attendances and admissions were significantly higher than planned, particularly for older patients, linked to the early onset of flu.
“Very regrettably, on our busiest days in December and January, a number of our emergency patients experienced unacceptably long delays in our Emergency Department such was the pressure on our hospitals and bed availability. This is not the experience we would wish for our patients, for which we apologise.”
52 patients were left on trolleys in excess of 12 hours in January, the documents reveal, whilst 17 were left on wards with members of the opposite sex.
However, although the crisis level has now been stepped down, Mr Homa says “services remain under strain”.
hospitals have seen corporate nurses forced to take on frontline duties and patients being treated in surgical beds in the last few months.
There are now plans to reduce the number of emergency admissions to the city’s hospitals with a more consolidated health and social care plan, which is being implemented this April by the government’s Better Care Fund. The plans will see investment in community services aimed at reducing strain on acute services.
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