Hospital plea as A&E under more pressure at George Eliot

PRESSURE is mounting on A&E staff prompting Nuneaton hospital bosses to ask people to only use services in an emergency.

They have spread the message across social media in a bid to help the increasing numbers of people going through the doors at the A&E department at the George Eliot Hospital.

A George Eliot Hospital spokesperson said: “Our emergency department is very busy and our staff are doing a fantastic job under very pressured conditions. We urge people to use alternative NHS services where appropriate such as NHS 111, local pharmacies and their GP.

“As many as one in four people who go to A&E could care for themselves or use alternative treatment. A&E should only be used for critical or life-threatening situations requiring medical attention.”

It is no secret that the team have been under pressure for some months now due to higher than expected numbers of admissions. This has led to mounting pressure on the already busy department.

Emergency care was one of the areas that CQC health inspectors highlighted as in need of attention. They said that senior leaders were not aware of the risk to patients in the department, there were no dedicated triage nurses in post, not all staff had been trained to triage patients and leaders were ‘not leading effectively’ and were not visi- ble due to demand elsewhere in the hospital.

The hospital has drawn up an action plan and the £1m upgrade of A&E, which includes new treatment areas, will be complimented by a new ‘streaming process’ for triage patients and extra staff are being recruited to boost the leadership in the emergency department team.