BLACK ALERT ON SIX OCCASIONS

Figures obtained using a Freedom of Information Act request have revealed in October, the trust was on black alert – Operational Pressures Escalation Level (OPEL) 4 status – on six occasions lasting 12 days and 30 minutes in total.

NHS England says there is “increased potential for patient care and safety to be compromised” when a black alert is declared.

The trust spent a further 15.7 days in October on OPEL 3.

Two-thirds of patients visiting A&E were seen within the four-hour target time. The operational standard is at least 95 per cent of patients attending A&E should be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

Speaking at the trust’s monthly board meeting, Mr Adler said: “It’s true to say that the situation has already been very pressurised.

“I don’t want to tempt fate but things have calmed down the past couple of days.”

He also said there will be space for extra beds “very soon” but “the ability to safely staff those wards is very challenging”.

Director of marketing and communications Mark Wightman compared A&E to Fight Club when asked how the trust plans to stop people turning up unnecessarily at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

He said: “The first rule of fight club is don’t mention fight club.”

He said other trusts had seen up to a 15 per cent increase in patients after carrying out campaigns aimed to direct patients elsewhere.

He said the ideal solution would be for GPs to write to their patients outlining the winter pressure the health service is under and informing them of where to go for help.