The boss of Nottingham's hospitals said he has been kept awake at night by the immense pressure on 'very busy' emergency departments. Anthony May, chief executive at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), made the comments as many NHS organisations remained in 'critical incidents' due to increasingly high demand on services - and he revealed nine wards were currently occupied by patients ill with Covid or flu.
A 'critical incident' is declared when the level of disruption results in a local NHS organisation temporarily or permanently losing its ability to deliver critical services. NUH, which runs Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital, and Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust (SFH), which runs King’s Mill, Newark and Mansfield Community hospitals, both declared a system-wide 'critical incident' on December 29, which is still in place as of today (January 3).
Mr May discussed the situation at Nottingham's hospitals with BBC Radio Nottingham - ahead of tonight's airing of Channel 4's BAFTA-nominated series '24 Hours in A&E', which was filmed in Queen's Medical Centre in 2021. "You'd have to be living on another planet to not see just how busy hospitals are at the moment, especially emergency apartments (ED)," he said.
