A&E pressure in Kettering as it sees 30% rise in patients

Posted: January 31, 2016

Posted in: Medical Negligence 

The Accident and Emergency department of Kettering General Hospital is experiencing the busiest week in its history to the extent that the NHS trust is cancelling and rearranging non-urgent operations and appointments to allow doctors and nurses to support the struggling department. Dr Andrew Chilton, the hospital’s Medical Director, has said: “The message to patients with conditions that don’t need to be seen at hospital very urgently is please do not come here”.

Compared to the same week last year, when the department treated 784 patients – or 196 per day over 4 days – this year the number is 1021, or 255 patients per day over the same 4 days. This equates to a rise of 30.2 percent.

Seen on a most urgent basis

Much of the problem stems from people attending the unit with minor injuries, long-term conditions and minor illnesses. Dr Chilton has called on people considering attending A&E to assess if they urgently require hospital treatment, or could they maximise their use of their GP, GP out-of-hours, pharmacists or the Corby Urgent Care Centre. There is no need for an appointment at the Care Centre, and patients will be seen on a most urgent basis.

Dr Chilton has also stressed that if you do attend the unit with a minor illness or injury, you risk having to wait for hours to be seen as the medical staff are dealing with those genuinely ill patients who need hospital care.

The hospital has, for some time, been coping with an increase of 20 percent more attendances, which has been putting considerable pressure on bed numbers and staffing.

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