Essex hospital considers cancelling elective surgery amid winter pressures

The medical director of Southend Hospital, Essex, has warned it may have to stop elective surgery after six ambulances waited for longer than an hour to offload patients.

Dr Stuart Harris said in an email to staff that current winter pressures meant “yet again we are in a dire position, which is putting the safety of patients who use our services at real risk”.

The email went on to say that six ambulances were also “cohorting” in the paediatric emergency department, where adult patients were grouped together with ambulance crews in the paediatric waiting area.

Dr Harris said “This was a very scary situation for both the patients and the staff.  I fear if we don’t turn this around we will have to stop all elective activity.”

He called on all senior staff to review patients being admitted into the hospital’s emergency department to try to “prevent admissions”.

In a statement the trust said “We can confirm no elective procedures are stopping at the moment.

“We always communicate with our staff on plans and policies as we work together through a period of extremely high demand.

“We have no plans to cancel operations and our staff are working tirelessly to provide the best and safest care to our patients.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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