A major hospital has declared a critical incident following a surge in flu and other respiratory illnesses across the region.
Royal Liverpool Hospital declared the incident due to “exceptionally high demand” over patients being admitted to emergency services wards.
It comes after it was reported patients were facing waits of up to 50 hours at the hospital’s emergency department.
A critical incident is declared after a hospital temporarily or permanently loses the ability to deliver critical services or where patients have been harmed – requiring support from other agencies, according to NHS England.
A University Hospitals of Liverpool Group spokesperson said: “We have seen an increasing number of people with flu and respiratory illnesses in our emergency departments in recent weeks.
“Given the exceptionally high demands on our Emergency Department, especially with flu and respiratory illnesses, and the number of patients, we have taken this action to support the safe care and treatment of our patients, which is our absolute priority.”
In December, nurses warned there was “barely a spare bed in the NHS” and that staff and patients were“desperately worried” about the winter months amid increasing flu cases.
Health leaders also warned that the service was facing a “quad-demic” of disease going into winter amid rising cases of flu, Covid-19, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
An average of 1,099 flu patients were in beds in England each day at the end of November, including 39 in critical care – the highest recorded at this time for three years.
Over the same week in 2023 the total was 243, with nine in critical care. At this point in 2022 an average of 772 flu patients were in hospital.
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