Salisbury Hospital declares internal critical incident

At 07.50am this morning Salisbury Hospital declared an internal critical incident.

The critical incident is due to multiple operational pressures including increased length of ambulance delays, increased staff sickness and an increasing number of patients waiting to be discharged to another setting.

Andy Hyett, Chief Operating Officer at Salisbury District Hospital said, “We are currently operating at a critical incident level which means we are unable to deliver the comprehensive care that we need to, due to the high volume of patients coming through our doors and the staff shortages we’re experiencing.

“To reduce pressure on the hospital, we would like to strongly encourage our local community to help us by only attending A&E if they are experiencing a life threating condition such as Heart Attacks, Strokes or Sepsis or if they have a serious injury. Our clinical teams will be prioritising the extremely ill, so if you do come to A&E with a condition that is not deteriorating, it is unlikely you will be seen for a long period of time.”

Alternatives to A&E include the Salisbury Walk-in Centre and NHS 111 online and by phone. For minor illness, local community pharmacists can provide advice and a range of over-the-counter medicine and treatments.

Teams across the hospital have implemented backup plans to try and resolve some of the issues so that the hospital remains open and safe.

Deputy CEO Lisa Thomas commented, “I am grateful to everyone at the hospital who has worked so hard to maintain our services under very difficult circumstances. I am incredibly sorry for the disruption and would like to thank our community in advance for working with us to try and alleviate some of the pressure that we’re currently experiencing and to patients for their tolerance and understanding.”