UPDATE - TUESDAY, 5pm:

  • Susan Field, director of service transformation at Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust, which runs the Vale Community Hospital in Dursley, has urged people to keep minor injury units in mind when seeking care. She said: "We have minor injury units at all seven of our community hospital sites where we can treat a wide range of conditions including minor illnesses, sprains, simple fractures, minor burns, stitches and skin problems and would encourage people to use these where possible as an alternative to A&E.”

UPDATE - TUESDAY, 4pm:

  • In national news, Peterborough City Hospital in Cambridgeshire has run out of space on its emergency wards and become the ninth hospital in the country to declare a major incident 
  • Figures still show the percentage of patients being seen before the four hour mark as 91.8 per cent
  • The current number of emergency admissions in hospitals that are run by the Gloucestershire trust is 743, a number which is slowly falling as the situation, as it stands, seems to improve
     

UPDATE - TUESDAY, 1pm:

  • At the moment the Gloucestershire Trust as a whole isn't a far stretch from the national target of 95 per cent, with current figures showing that 91.8 per cent of patients are being attended to within the space of four hours
  • Similarly, emergency admissions and overall A&E attendance is steadily falling
  • Despite not meeting that 95 per cent target, the Trust is fairing a little better than the current national average, which now stands at 90.5 per cent   

A MAJOR incident was declared by two hospitals in Gloucestershire due to high demand in A&E departments - for the second time in the space of a month.

Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General Hospitals are dealing with a substantial number of non-urgent patients, which is causing a backlog, leading them to enter major incident status on Monday, January 5.

The situation reflects a national crisis which has seen A&E departments across England struggling to deal with massive influxes of patients, with six major NHS hospitals enacting a major incident plan.

The declaring of a major incident means extra resources can be brought in such as specialist teams, additional staff, equipment and facilities.

On Sunday, January 4, at 3.38pm, @gloshospitals, the Trust's official Twitter account, released a tweet which read: "There's currently extreme demand on our A&E services with more than 50 patients waiting to be seen at Glos. Please call 111 for advice first."

At midday on Tuesday, January 6, 91.8 per cent of patients were being seen within four hours, falling short of the national target of 95 per cent.

At the Gloucestershire Royal, around 30 patients admitted from A&E were over the weekend being housed in a day surgery unit overseen by two nurses as there were no other beds. 

The Trust is now hiring extra staff and will be offering specialist equipment to the affected hospitals. It will also be increasing the beds available across Gloucestershire and promoting community alternatives to hospital admission with health professionals.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said 15 to 30 per cent of people using Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General's emergency departments had "non-urgent ailments".

The trust spokesman said another factor contributing to the problem in Gloucestershire was the high number of "elderly patients being admitted, whose needs are often more complex".

A major incident was declared by both of the hospitals previously on December 15, 2014. On that occasion a total of 51 patients were in need of beds at the facilities.

That shortage was revealed during a crisis meeting between health care providers across Gloucestershire, who met to discuss claims over “bed-blocking” patients who prevent others from being admitted.

In reaction to the current concerns, the Gloucestershire Trust along with the county's Clinical Commissioning Group issued a joint statement urging members of the public to consider their options when seeking medical care.

Dr Tom Llewellyn, clinical director for emergency care at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are urging the public to think very carefully before attending our emergency departments.

"You may receive the care you need more appropriately and in a more timely fashion if you access other health services available.”

Clinical chairwoman of NHS Gloucestershire CCG Dr Helen Miller, concurred with this point, and offered recommendations to patients who may not require a hospital visit.

She said: “It is really important to remember that hospital Emergency Departments are designed to treat serious injuries and emergencies.

"The choice of healthcare options is often greater than people realise, particularly for the treatment of minor ailments.

"The local pharmacy is a great first port of call for minor ailments. Pharmacists are qualified to give advice on a range of conditions, are experts on medicines and can advise people on whether they need to call or visit another NHS service. "If people are unsure about what health services to access, they can also visit the Choose Well Gloucestershire website which provides details of all the services available or call NHS 111.”

A major incident is described by the NHS England Commissioning Board as "any occurrence that presents serious threat to the health of the community, disruption to the service or causes (or is likely to cause) such numbers or types of casualties as to require special arrangements to be implemented by hospitals, ambulance trusts or other acute or community provider organisations."