NHS hospital staff talk of pressure on them this Christmas

Speaking in the run up to Christmas as new variant Covid issues intensified, University Hospitals Dorset senior matron for urgent and emergency care, Bruce Hopkins, said: "I have been working in the trust since 2009 and the pressure now is extraordinary."

Both departments are seeing a huge volume of walk-patients who would have better dealt in the primary care system, including GPs, the 111 service and pharmacies.

"There is a whole range of conditions were are seeing including chest pains, chest infections, accidents, foreign bodies, broken nails, things stuck in ears, that kind of thing."

Bruce Hopkins

Mr Hopkins said: "For most of this it would be far better for patients to see someone in primary care but there is a perception that people can't get appointments.

"GPs and emergency departments think differently. The family doctor will start at the lower end of things, perhaps prescribing antibiotics and then work upwards from there.

"We start with the worse case scenario and work down from that. So what might be a ten minute appointment at the local surgery can end up being a six or seven hour stay in the emergency department.

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"Sometimes it means we can't see the wood for the trees in terms of what's most urgent.

"While coming to us might seem like the easy option because we are always open, it really is not the best thing for most patients, the staff or the system."

On the busiest days Bournemouth's emergency department will see between 280-300 patients and Poole between 220-240.

Another part of the equation is the knock-on effect on blue light emergencies.

"We are holding ambulances for a considerable length of time because of the demand. What used to be an occurrence once or twice a week is now happening daily."

The high number of 'medically fit for discharge' patients who cannot leave hospital because no social care is available is also a big issue.

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"It means some people are waiting five or six hours with us until a hospital bed is available and we are not set up for that."

Mr Hopkins urged people to think carefully about coming to the emergency department if it was not a genuine emergency.

He said the 111 service can be used to book into ED which helps manage the surges in demand.

"If you walk in at 5pm for example you are likely to find a very full waiting room and people sitting along the corridors, but a few hours later it will have eased."

He asked for patients to be understanding about the length of time they might be waiting.

"I think it's going to be a tough winter," Mr Hopkins added. "It is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes but you have to stay positive."