Norfolk hospital declares major incident

Norfolk hospital declares major incident

news.bbc.co.uk

Ambulances are queuing outside a hospital because of a major alert which has left it with no beds available to new admissions.
The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital is on "black alert" and has declared a major incident in order to discharge non-urgent patients.

In a statement, the hospital said 10 ambulances were waiting to admit patients with paramedics treating them.

It said all other general hospitals in the east were on the same alert level.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.norfolk-pct.nhs.uk

Thought this seemed a little strange, usually overcrowding in hospitals does not warrant a major incident to be declared.

Reading the major incident plan found here;

www.norfolk-pct.nhs.uk...


a major incident in bried is one of the following;

Any occurrence which presents serious threat to the health of the community, disruption
to the service or causes (or is likely to cause) such numbers or types of casualties as to
require special arrangements to be implemented by hospitals, ambulance trusts or
primary care organisations’.

anyway just thought it was something to keep an eye on.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

The OP made this sound like something major like a terrorist attack or something was happening to cause the alert. Turns out to be really NBD (no big deal).

From the same article in the OP:

NNUH spokesman Andrew Stronach said there was no single incident that brought on the black alert.

"It's just general run of the mill problems, like chest pains, collapses, diarrhoea and vomiting."

The hospital said it was working with social services and other organisations to help move patients with less-severe medical conditions.

"As a result of the extreme pressure we are under, we have declared a major incident in order that all the agencies can take appropriate action to discharge patients and free-up beds," the statement added.

"The hospital is not closed, but we would also urge members of the public who have minor health problems not to attend A&E as staff are being kept extremely busy dealing with 999 patients with more serious health problems."

Yep your right, my mistake just overfull hospital, the news article keeps getting added to with more information, seemed important at first, but turns out just usual full hospitals.

wont go into that rant right now.

reply to post by centurion1211


Ah...

Pardon me for discrediting your source, but it sounds as if they're merely trying to stop people from freaking out.

The conditions mentioned strike me more as symptoms of a problem, as opposed to the actual issue at hand.

I saw this on the news only a little while ago, actually - so it's definately television material.

As with all medical conditions, the true extent of the dangers only manifest themselves later as opposed to sooner, so if there is anything hazardous about this we'll find out at some point or other, just not as soon as we'd like.

If the black alert continues for more than three days, i imagine people are going to sit up and take notice.

Could be nothing, however there have been a number of bird flu outbreaks recently ...could be nothing...but ifs its bad at this time of year ...it doesn't bode well for winter...and having worked as a nurse in acute medical assessment with admissions..this is not the busyest time!!