Hospital cancels operations to cope with emergency care (From Hereford Times)

County Hospital in Hereford cancels operations to cope with emergency care

11:53am Tuesday 8th January 2013 in News By Bill Tanner

CLINICAL teams at Hereford County Hospital have the go-ahead to put off some operations to cope with the continuing demands of emergency care.

With little let up on the county’s A&E unit over Christmas/New Year staff say they are at least seeing the patients they should see.

Much of the continuing high attendance is for conditions serious enough to warrant A&E in the first instance.

Jane Griffin, lead A&E nurse at Wye Valley NHS Trust (WVT) said her team was seeing higher numbers of patients than expected, the majority with serious illnesses or injuries.

“The pressures may mean that some patients may experience a slight delay to some services, or that services are delivered in a slightly different way. A&E staff are working very hard to see and treat patients as quickly as possible and our priority is to maintain patient safety, we are asking for everyone’s understanding during this difficult time,” she said.

WVT has already activated plans to ensure that patient safety is maintained with the pressure on. Clinical teams have the go-ahead to postpone some operations to ensure they can deal with acute and emergency care.

Jan Reynolds, WVT service unit director for urgent care, said that though this was standard procedure clinicians did not take such decisions lightly.

“Every effort will be made to reschedule treatment as soon as we can, patients will be contacted directly should their operation need to be rescheduled,” she said.