Hospital ‘full’ after festivities take toll

A “red alert “ was issued at Hull Royal Infirmary yesterday, indicating that its bed capacity was between 95 and 99 per cent.

NHS Hull said the hospital was treating a “very high” volume of patients and asked anyone who did not consider their need to be urgent to make use of alternative services, such as minor injuries units, pharmacies, and NHS Direct if possible.

A spokeswoman said: “We are experiencing a period of unusually high demand and staff are working as hard as they can to see and treat patients.

“However, during such an intense period we are reliant upon patients making sensible choices and only attending hospital if they have a real emergency.”

Capacity is monitored by Yorkshire Ambulance Service twice a day.

There are four states of alert: green, when capacity is 75 per cent or less; amber, representing 76 to 94 per cent capacity; red; and black, when the hospital is full. The last “black alert” was in October, the only time the warning was issued last year.

Admission numbers at the accident and emergency department vary, although anything between 275 and 350 a day is considered normal.

Admissions of between 350 and 400 occur during peak periods and are directly attributed to factors such as extreme weather conditions, viruses of flu outbreaks. Numbers historically rise after bank holidays and in the first three weeks of January, NHS Hull said, due to people drinking heavily and reduced access to GP services.

It added: “The trust escalates to Red Alert only at times of sustained demands for services, which does occur more often during the winter months or during norovirus or influenza outbreaks. We have no beds closed for infection control reasons.”