The situation facing the NHS right now is causing major concern for people in our region
The new Royal Liverpool University Hospital(Image: Liverpool Echo)
People have called for “urgent and immediate action” to address the crisis in the National Health Service after the Royal Liverpool Hospital declared a critical incident today.
A critical incident is declared when because the level of pressure or disruption a hospital is facing could result in the organisation losing its ability to deliver critical services, patients may have been harmed or the environment is not safe, requiring special measures and support from other agencies to restore normal operating functions. Wirral’s main hospital trust made the same declaration this weekend.
All major hospitals in our region are under immense pressure right now. Soaring flu cases and other seasonal viruses have added to an already creaking system, leading to grim scenes of ambulances parked outside hospitals with patients for hours and chaotic Accident and Emergency departments.
ECHO readers have been reacting with concern to today’s latest update on how the crisis is hitting our region’s hospitals. Commenting on X, one health worker said: “It’s an indictment about how the NHS has been handled by various governments. When I say to patients that they need admission to hospital via A&E, they plead asking if there is another way.”
Another reader made a direct approach to the Labour government and said: “You’ve got to fix this. Ordinary, hard working people are being failed miserably. Urgent and immediate action is required, now.”
Ambulances outside the Royal Liverpool University Hospital(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Another concerned reader predicted that the situation will only be exacerbated during the treacherous weather currently being experienced in our region. They said: “I’d imagine all the slips and falls in this weather are just going to make this worse today.”
There were several people who raised the subject about the new Royal Liverpool Hospital having fewer beds than the old building did. It is true that the older Royal had 685 beds, while the new one, which finally opened in 2022, has 640, although the trust argues that other beds it has available in the community and at its Broadgreen site mitigate this loss.
But with the hospital so full, capacity is clearly on the minds of some people. Responding to the story, Dawn Williams said: “It didn’t help building the new Royal hospital with fewer beds.” Lynn Mills added: “Well, that’s what happens when a small hospital is built.”