Cancer ops cancelled and critical incident declared as Covid pressure hits Shropshire hospitals
The Covid pressure on the county's hospitals continues with some cancer operations cancelled and a critical incident declared in recent days.
Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs both Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, currently has around 50 Covid patients on its wards as the Omicron variant continues to cause a significant spike in cases.
It has meant rising patient numbers and increased strains on staffing due to sickness and isolation periods.
The trust has confirmed that it had to cancel a 'small number of cancer surgeries' on Tuesday, but said people should prepare for their appointments as normal.
The hospitals also confirmed that a 'critical incident' was declared throughout the day on Sunday – moving the trust to its highest level of alert for around 24 hours.
It is understood the incident related to capacity of available beds at the trust, with difficulties in finding places to discharge healthy patients to the community to free up space.
It comes as the NHS across the country continues to be hit by Covid absences with 24 hospitals in England moving to the highest level of alert over the Christmas period.
A spokesman for SaTH said: "Capacity in our hospitals is currently stretched due to the ongoing effects of Covid-19 on the whole health and social care system, and this meant we had to postpone a small number of cancer surgeries on a single day, for which we apologise.
“Whilst the ongoing pressures across the whole system will remain over the coming weeks and potentially result in further impacts on services, cancer surgery more widely is continuing and all patients, for any planned care, should continue to prepare for their appointment on the given date unless directly informed otherwise by the trust.”
The chief executive of NHS Providers, Chris Hopson, meanwhile explained how 'critical incidents' impact on care while allowing hospitals to plan effectively.
He said: "A trust will declare a critical incident if it believes it might not be able to provide range of critical / priority services it needs to.
"Declaring an incident has the following advantages. It clearly flags impending problem.
"It enables senior leaders to call for help. From staff, from partners, from neighbours.
"It creates a formal interim emergency governance structure to make prioritisation decisions at pace e.g. redeploying staff or reprioritising services.
"So whilst a critical incident is an indication of very serious pressure it also shows trust is taking immediate steps to ensure it can still provide critical services."
