NHS Shropshire has declared a critical incident due to “continued and unprecedented” pressure on its services.
Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System (ICS) said it was experiencing significant levels of demand across all health and care services across the county.
The move means some non-urgent operations that require patients to stay in hospital will be postponed to prioritize those with the most urgent clinical need.
Demand has been boosted by a “relatively large” number of patients in hospital and community beds with Covid, as well as a large number of patients arriving at hospitals for other conditions.
“Additional challenges” have also been caused by the ongoing heatwave, the ICS said, putting “significant strain” on the system.
The critical incident affects four NHS trusts in the county. They are: Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust.
Patients who were not contacted directly about delayed surgery were asked to attend appointments as usual.
The postponement of non-urgent operations comes after NHS figures revealed this week that waiting lists for routine treatment hit a record 6.7 million people in July.
Regretting that such a step was “necessary”, the ICS added that it was “important to be able to focus on patients requiring emergency and urgent care as a priority”.
“The critical incident is an indication of the serious pressures the system is facing,” he added.
“Our teams continue to work extremely hard and we would like to reassure the public that despite the challenges we face, our services remain open to anyone who needs them.”
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Shropshire is not the first area to announce a critical incident in its health and care system this summer.
Last week, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust took the move because of “continued pressure” on its services.
As a result, she said she could only treat patients with life-threatening conditions and injuries at St Mary’s Hospital in Newport. The status has since been revoked.
ICS in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire also declared a critical incident in its health services in July due to a significant number of Covid cases, a lack of capacity in the care system and a high number of patients arriving in hospital requiring treatment.
His status has since been revoked.
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