Hospital A&E department struggles

Posted: December 29, 2014

Posted in: Medical Negligence 

A hospital in Stoke-on-Trent said that increased pressures on its accident and emergency department is expected to continue into the new year. Patients at the Royal Stoke University Hospital are being forced to wait for up to six hours before being seen by a doctor.  A spokesperson from the hospital said that the delay has been caused by an “unprecedented demand” over the festive period.

The spokesperson said that the hospital is struggling to cope with this increase in patient numbers because of a desperate lack of resources. Where the government aims for 95% of patients to be seen within four hours of arrival at the A&E department, October saw 46 patients waiting for over 12 hours for treatment at the hospital.

“We do not have the resources to cope”

The Department of Health said that hospitals could not blame a lack of resources as extra funding was recently granted to relieve A&E pressures. The University Hospitals of the North Midlands (UHNM) trust – which runs the Royal Stoke University Hospital – was given £5.5million in November to help tackle delays.

Medical director at the Royal Stoke Dr John Oxtoby said that patients were being made to wait for “significant periods of time” over the Christmas period. He added: “We perhaps do not have the resources to cope as well as we would like. Our hospital is overwhelmed by patient numbers.”

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