Hospital bosses say they are facing 'extreme challenges' in A&E, after declaring two critical incidents in a month.

University Hospitals of North Midlands declared its latest critical at the Royal Stoke and County Hospital sites on Monday due to surging demand for services, particularly emergency care, just four weeks after taking the same action on June 19.

Chief operating officer Simon Evans told a UHNM board meeting that urgent and emergency care performance had improved this year, with the trust seeing more than 70 per cent of patients within four hours in March, April and May. This was the first time UHNM had achieved this level of performance over three consecutive months since 2021, with the figure rising to 71.5 per cent in May.

The latest critical incident was declared on Monday due to surging demand for services (SWNS).

But Mr Evans said that the high demand for emergency care was still resulting in long waits for patients – there were 25,548 attendances in May. And while actions taken so far to improve the situation were having an impact, Mr Evans said the next 'step change' in performance would come with the launch of the new Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) unit next month.

He said: "There are some really positive developments. We've continued our streak with the four-hour performance, with some of the best figures since 2001.

"But we do recognise that underneath that we have still got issues with long waits in the department, overcrowding and also our impact on ambulance handovers. We have found that in the summer months, June and July, we have had some extreme challenges on the urgent and emergency care pathway."

Actions taken to tackle the problem have included improving the efficiency of the emergency department, and reducing attendances by directing more patients to services in the community.

UHNM is asking people to only use A&E in a serious or life-threatening emergency (Image supplied).

Mr Evans said the new SDEC unit would make a big difference by allowing more emergency patients to be seen and discharged quickly. At the moment, some patients who could be discharged within 24 hours end up staying longer, which has a knock-on effect on bed capacity.

Mr Evans added: "In June and July we've hit some of our highest levels of admissions for medical specialties. One of our key responses to that is going to be out new SDEC unit, that will look to create a protected space to care for those patients who we believe we can see and discharge in less than 24 hours.

"With our current configuration that's something that becomes overwhelmed at times. We don't always manage to make those discharges in a timely way."

Declaring a critical incident allows UHNM to take additional measures to deal with increased demand for emergency care. But this can mean much longer delays for some patients, as the sickest are prioritised. UHNM is asking people to only use A&E in a serious or life-threatening emergency.

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