Pictured: Ambulances outside Midland Metropolitan Hospital as pressures on NHS increase
Multiple ambulances have been pictured outside the recently opened Midlands Metropolitan Hospital in Smethwick following increasing pressures on health services.
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The images come after several NHS trusts - including Birmingham - declared critical incidents because of sustained pressure in A&E departments, with people being treated in corridors and a patient at one hospital forced to wait 50 hours to be admitted to a ward.
Accident and emergency units in the Black Country and Staffordshire are battling high demand amid rising respiratory related cases and a so-called quad-demic relating to influenza, Covid-19, norovirus and syncytial virus (RSV).
Some hospitals have restricted visitor numbers while others are encouraging people to wear surgical masks to limit the spread of viruses.
All Black Country trusts will be introducing a 45-minute ambulance handover system at the emergency departments between 8am and 8pm this week in a bid to reduce queues and waiting times.
Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust has plans for a ‘temporary’ urgent treatment centre at Midland Metropolitan Hospital.
The plans would see trailers used as an urgent treatment centre at the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital for “approximately” 18 months to assess patients and directing non-emergency cases away from the hospital’s main A&E in a bid to cut waiting times.
Three trailers would be placed at the ‘super’ hospital in Smethwick, which finally opened last October after years of delays, while the trust waits for Sandwell Council to decide on a planning application for a permanent building.
There are about 5,000 patients in hospital with flu in England, according to Professor Julian Redhead, NHS national clinical director for urgent and emergency care.
He told the PA news agency: “Wards are now full to bursting and that pressure is feeding back into A&E departments, with patients being treated in environments not usually used for clinical care.
“Most patients would recognise when they’re being treated in a corridor but those aren’t the environments we would want to treat patients in. That is difficult for colleagues and patients who are treated in that environment.”
Prof Redhead added that there is “some evidence” the flu season may be peaking, but warned: “We’ve also got schools going back and that can cause different social mixing.”
He said a peak should be expected in the coming weeks.
“But we’ve also got that cold snap at the moment, which will also put pressure on emergency services," he added.
“We have pressure in emergency care all year round but the winter, with the added pressures of flu and other viruses, really makes that a really stark feeling of pressure.”
