Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust calls for help from public with services stretched

Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) sent out a message on social media on Wednesday, January 8 as Queen Alexandra Hospital continues to be faced with a large number of patients. The trust has released three ways in which the public can help.

Steve Mathieu, PHU medical director, said: “Our hospital is very busy at the moment. All of our services are doing everything that they can to care for patients in a timely fashion, but we are very, very stretched. We would like to ask all of you to understand these three key messages to help us to care for patients in the most timely way we can.

“The first message is, please only use the emergency department for life threatening illnesses. If you need us, we are here for you. If you do not need us please consider other choices.”

The trust highlighted Urgent Treatment Centres as facilities that can treat injuries such as broken bones, sprain and minor injuries. Pharmacies are also able to help with a range of minor illnesses.

Steve said: “The second message is please, when your loved one, your relative is ready to go home, please help us to get them home safely in the quickest possible way. This will enable us to get other patients into a more comfortable area in the hospital as quickly as possible so we can treat them in the right place.

“The third thing is to remind everyone to please be kind and respectful to all of our staff. They will do the same for you and we want to work with you together to provide the best possible compassionate care. Thank you for your support.”

At this time PHU have confirmed that they are not planning on declaring a critical incident. The news comes as many hospitals around the country have declared critical incidents due to “extremely high attendances”.

Over the Christmas period there was an increase in people attending QA’s A&E department with flu and other respiratory viruses. This has been seen nationally with flu hospitalisations increasing.

To help reduce the spread of infection PHU advised to :

• Get vaccinated
• Reduce contact with others
• Wash hands regularly with soap and water.

Further advise can be found on the PHU website.

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