Health chiefs say Lancashire hospitals under severe pressure

Hospitals in Lancashire are reporting “severe pressure” on the ambulance service and emergency departments.

A ‘critical’ incident has remained in place at Blackpool Victoria Hospital as it deals with ‘huge’ numbers of patients, and the trust which runs Burnley General Hospital and the Royal Blackburn Hospital said demand was three times higher than usual at this time of year.

Health bosses are urgent people to only attend accident and emergency if absolutely necessary.

North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said it was “extremely busy” and was seeing a 26 per cent rise in its highest priority incidents for this time of year.

Dr Grahame Goode, Deputy Medical Director of Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said their A&E department was “exceptionally busy”.  He added that it had declared a critical internal incident “due to lack of beds and the pressure on our emergency department”.

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director for England, said there was “no doubt pressure on the health service remains incredibly high”, but staff were “going above and beyond to see more patients and deliver millions more tests, checks, treatments and operations”.

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Posted by Karen Motley, 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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