Hospital bosses are warning the public to avoid the Royal Oldham Hospital's emergency department unless urgent and life-threatening. Three hospitals have today declared critical incidents after almost a week of IT failures across four Greater Manchester hospitals which have caused 'severe delays' to patient care, according to staff.
Concerned staff say the IT crash has 'affected every part' of Royal Oldham, Fairfield General, North Manchester General and Rochdale Infirmary. Critical incidents have now been declared at Fairfield, Rochdale Infirmary and the Royal Oldham as staff wrangle with the major outages.
The Royal Oldham's A&E department is one of the worst affected units which have been hit by a slew of IT system problems since Wednesday, trust chiefs have confirmed to the Manchester Evening News. The announcement comes amid waits of '11 hours' being reported by patients at the A&E, while sources have warned that the pressure at the hospital may not relent for at least another '24 to 48 hours'.
