The decision has been made to implement the highest level of internal alert measures at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in response to growing demand for services.
The measure, which is in place at Royal Preston Hospital and Chorley and South Ribble Hospital, is known as OPEL (Operation Pressure Escalation Levels) 4 and the NHS says this allows hospitals to focus on patient care and safety in times of pressure.
Actions taken include increased use of same day emergency care, pharmacy colleagues supporting the discharge lounge, cancellation of all non-essential meetings and activities and speaking to patients about arranging their own transport home rather than ambulance transfer.
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The trust said that the public can help manage demand by seeking help from the most appropriate place.
This includes using your local pharmacist for minor health issues, using the NHS app for essential services, using 111, making sure you cancel appointments you cannot make and ensuring that you book an appointment if you are eligible for Covid-19, flu or RSV vaccines.
Dr Michael Stewart, deputy chief medical officer at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, said: “We’re operating at OPEL 4, which is the highest level of escalation we use. It means that the demand for our services is significantly exceeding our capacity, and we’re particularly seeing this across our Urgent and Emergency Care streams.
“This does mean that some of our patients, and naturally their families, are seeing long waits for their assessment and treatment.
“The situation we’re in is not through lack of effort. And the fact that the staff are finding it stressful and they’re finding it distressing is actually a sign of the dedication and the compassion that we still feel we want to show our patients.
“We expect winter pressures. We expect it to be busy at this time of year, but what we’re experiencing at the moment is exceptionally high and sustained levels of escalation.”
The NHS nationally saw a drop in flu admissions during Christmas week but said they were ‘far from complacent’ ahead of the forecasted cold weather which is now happening in the UK which was expected to mean increased pressures.
An amber cold-health alert, issued by the government, remains in place until midday on Monday (12 January).
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