News / Health
Second ‘black alert’ for city’s hospitals
Hospitals in Bristol have declared a “black alert” for the second time since the beginning of the year, due to severe pressure on services.
People are being urged only to use A&E for genuine, life-threatening emergencies, following the high demand.
The black escalation status was declared on Monday, meaning action had to be taken to “maintain safe, clinical services”.
The last time the hospitals were put on black alert was January 5. A week later hospitals experiences a 24-hour walkout by junior doctors striking over their new contracts.
As a result of the latest black alert, extra staff have now been brought in, more beds have been made available and non-urgent operations have been cancelled.
But patients are also being asked to “do their bit” by visiting minor injury units instead of hospitals or visiting chemists and calling the NHS on 111.
Dr Peter Goyder, Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group lead for urgent care and local GPs said: “In recent days we have seen an increase in hospital admissions together with a higher number of very ill patients who need to stay in hospital for longer.
“We are coping with demand and have put in place a range of measures to increase capacity and ensure that people are discharged once they no longer need specialist hospital services.
“However we do anticipate that we will remain in escalation for a number of days and encourage people to help us manage pressure in the system by using services appropriately and avoiding A&E for non-emergency conditions.”
Read more: Bristol doctors’ messages to patients
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