East Kent Hospitals NHS trust declared a critical incident at William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, Kent, after beds across its hospitals were full and urgent and emergency services were under extremely high pressure. The trust said people going to William Harvey Hospital may face an extremely long wait.
Staff were focused on helping patients most in need, while the trust said its capacity to admit more patients was limited. That left the hospital with less room to move people on from A&E and into beds, a constraint that can quickly spread through the rest of the trust’s hospitals.
William Harvey Hospital in Ashford
The trust said declaring a critical incident allows it to keep patients safe by drawing on additional support from colleagues across the health system. It also told people to use A&E only if they had a life-threatening illness or injury, or were collecting someone being discharged.
For everyone else, the trust said medical assistance could be found by contacting NHS 111, a GP, a pharmacy or an urgent treatment centre. That gives patients a route around the busiest part of the system while the trust deals with the shortage of beds and the pressure on emergency care.
East Kent Hospitals NHS trust review
East Kent Hospitals NHS trust said it was reviewing patients scheduled for planned procedures and appointments. A spokesperson said that unless patients heard from the trust directly, they should assume their procedure or appointment would go ahead.
That instruction leaves a narrow line for patients to watch: keep any planned visit unless the trust contacts them, but do not go straight to A&E unless the problem is life-threatening or tied to discharge. The trust did not say how long the critical incident would last, and it did not give a number for how many patients were waiting.
