On Tuesday afternoon the hospital announced that it had declared a critical incident and a shortage of beds. Temporary beds were opened but ultimately just three elective surgeries were postponed. All cancer and emergency surgeries were prioritised and went ahead as planned.
Health & Social Care said that there was no single factor which had driven the increased level of admissions seen at the beginning of the week.
‘We would like to thank our dedicated staff who performed exceptionally well during the period of increased patient numbers, which was especially challenging due to the weather conditions,’ said Elaine Burgess, director of care delivery at HSC.
‘We recognise that disruption will have been caused to service users, including those who had surgery postponed, and once again apologise for any inconvenience caused to those people.
‘An escalation plan is in place for the weekend should any further capacity issues arise, but we are hopeful that it will not be needed. The situation continues to be closely monitored.’
The declaration of the critical incident followed only days after Health & Social Care president George Oswald had admitted in the States that the hospital was facing a new bed crisis most weeks throughout the year.
‘The winter bed crisis is no longer seen to be just a winter bed crisis – it is an all-year crisis,’ said Deputy Oswald.
‘Modelling for provision of healthcare beds is an all-year-round function. Virtually every week there is a bed crisis of some sort of other which has to addressed.’
Ongoing delays to opening phase one of the hospital modernisation project have not helped, and it will now not open until next year at the earliest, while the planned second phase of work has been paused altogether because of spiralling costs.
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