Number of people attending King’s Mill Hospital and Queen’s Medical Centre rise as NHS deals with winter pressures

The number of people coming to Nottingham Main Hospital for accidents and emergencies is rising sharply as the local NHS copes with additional winter pressures.

The Queen’s Medical Center department showed up 18,808 people in November 2022, compared to 17,917 in October.

And Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust (SFH), which runs King’s Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, saw 15,015 visitors in November, up from 14,751 the previous month.

The Queen’s Medical Centre, run by Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, saw a similar total number of visitors as A&E at the start of last winter – 18,298 people visited the emergency department in October 2021 and 17,655 visitors in November 2021.

However, Kings Mill is experiencing a higher attendance this winter.

14,293 patients were visited in the emergency department in October 2021 and 13,897 patients in November 2021.

NHS England statistics released for Nottingham this month also show that the number of patients waiting 12 hours or more for the decision to admit the patient to their hospital admission had fallen.

And 407 people waited more than 12 hours in November – but that was less than October’s 686 people.

It comes after a 95-year-old veteran waited 26 hours in a corridor at Queen’s Medical Center for a hospital bed.

Stanley Solomons was admitted to the emergency room on the morning of October 16 and was finally given a bed on the afternoon of October 17.

The Chief Operating Officer of NUH, which also runs City Hospital, offered a sincere apology to Mr Solomons and his family at the time.

His daughter, Rachael Ellis, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that her father’s treatment was excellent but staff was on a case-by-case basis and lacked the resources to meet demand.

Referring to the latest statistics released by the NHS, Ms Ellis, also Labor councilor for Bestwood St Albans, added: “The situation was totally predictable, we could have seen this coming years ago.

“We are in an emergency situation just as we were during the pandemic.

“The only thing the government can do now is to redirect emergency aid to support the NHS.

“I don’t blame the staff, the staff are doing their best, but the resources and vacancies are so great that it is impossible for them to do more.

“This is something that must not continue.”

Mr Solomons is now back at his care home and is “frail” but has “substantially recovered from the experience” of waiting in hospital.

She said she welcomed the reduction in wait times of more than 12 hours, but added: “It is totally unacceptable that people have to wait so long in the emergency room.

“From my point of view, we have to bring it back to under four hours.”

In June 2021, NUH said “emergency activity reached the highest numbers ever seen” as lockdown restrictions eased.

A total of 18,613 people joined A&E in June 2021.

An NHS spokesman, speaking for NUH and SFH, said: “Demand for NHS services across the country remains high at this time and we are so grateful to our hardworking NHS colleagues for the work they are doing to ensure that patients continue to have access to the medicine and attention they need as timely as possible this winter.

“One thing we can all do to help our local hospitals is to look at the full range of NHS services before they come to the hospital – unless it’s something other than one real emergency.

“By doing simple things like visiting your local pharmacy or checking out ‘NHS111 Online’ for the advice you need before you visit our emergency departments, you can help ensure our hospitals continue to serve patients this winter those who need it most can be there.”

Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “Our health and care services are under tremendous pressure, to facilitate this we are providing up to £8 billion to boost performance and bring services up to par to bring about the pandemic.

“It’s encouraging to see that ambulance response times have improved in all regions of the country this month, a testament to our incredibly hard-working staff, but we know there’s more work to be done.

“The coming months will be challenging but I am committed to managing wait times and improving access for patients – we are providing an extra £500m to help speed up hospital discharges, get ambulances back to work faster and reduce the number of NHS calls to increase handlers and create at least 7,000 extra beds.”