Patients urged to choose right place for care amid rising demand at King’s Mill Hospital

It comes as newly released figures show fewer patients visited accident and emergency at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs King’s Mill in Sutton, last month, although attendances were higher than April 2021.

NHS England figures show 14,255 patients visited A&E at SFH in April, a drop of 7 per cent on the 15,337 visits recorded during March, but 16 per cent more than the 12,295 patients seen in April 2021.

The figures show attendances were well above the levels seen at the start of the coronavirus pandemic – in April 2020, there were 6,648 visits to A&E at SFH sites.

The majority of attendances last month were via major A&E departments – those with full resuscitation equipment and 24-hour consultant-led care, such as at King’s Mill – while 34 per cent were via minor injury units, such as SFH’s urgent care centre at Newark Hospital.

Visits

Across England, A&E departments received 2 million visits last month, down 7 per cent compared with March, but 9 per cent more than the 1.9 million seen during April 2021.

In April at SFH: there were 75 booked appointments, down from 97 in March; just 81 per cent of arrivals were seen within four hours, against an NHS target of 95 per cent; 686 patients waited longer than four hours for treatment following a decision to admit; and, of those, 108 were delayed by more than 12 hours.

Simon Barton, trust chief operating officer, said: “Demand remains high for NHS services and our colleagues at SFH continue to work hard to help manage those pressures.

“One of the things we’re asking patients to do to help their NHS is to ask themselves whether our hospitals are the right place for their needs when they are thinking about coming to our emergency department.

“You can help reduce pressure on our teams by visiting your pharmacy, calling your GP team, calling 111 or visiting the NHS111 website for advice when it’s anything less than a genuine emergency.

“By doing things like this, we can all help ensure patients get the right level of attention for their needs and keep our hospitals free for when patients really do need them most.”