Shropshire's hospitals 'full': Appointments cancelled under growing pressure
Shropshire’s two main hospitals have been forced to cancel elective day cases and are using extra capacity to cope with high demand, health bosses have revealed.
Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital, said it had been very busy this week but bosses were taking steps to ensure patients received the best possible care.
Monday was the second busiest day of 2017 for its emergency departments, with 426 people coming through the doors.
On Tuesday, that figure rose to almost 800 people in two days.
A total of 18 elective day cases have also been cancelled since Monday.
Debbie Kadum, chief operating officer at the trust, said: “This has meant that we have had to implement our ‘hospital full’ protocol, using extra capacity where available to ensure our emergency departments can continue to function.
“We have also, unfortunately, had to cancel some elective day cases since the beginning of the week, to accommodate medical patients and we would like to apologise to anybody who has been affected while we deal with this period of extraordinary demand on our services.”
“This is just one example of why we would like to separate our planned and emergency care, to ensure that we can best treat as many people as possible at times of high demand.
“During this busy time, we would again ask people to please think carefully about whether alternative local services, which can avoid what can be a lengthy and stressful visit to hospital, might be more appropriate.
“I would again like to thank our incredible staff for all of their hard work this week.”
