Sherwood Forest Hospital Trust says it's faced most difficult winter ever experienced

Phil Bolton, chief nurse at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, said the period between October and December last year had been the one of the hardest in his three decades in emergency care.

The trust runs the King’s Mill Hospital in Suttonm Newark Hospitals and Mansfield Community Hospital,

During a trust board meeting on February 6, health officials said the hospitals had been impacted by staff sickness, more arrivals to King’s Mill’s emergency department, and a rise in bacterial infections.

Mr Bolton said: “In my 30 years it was some of the most pressured and difficult I’ve ever experienced and I have worked in emergency care all of that time.

“With that said I think our processes and plans worked well.

"Things appeared calm and controlled despite us taking some really difficult decisions as a team.”

The trust says, despite efforts, some patients have been left waiting more than 12 hours for admission to King’s Mill’s emergency department.

Between October and December documents show there had been three per cent more ambulance arrivals and more than seven per cent more attendances to A&E compared to the same period the year before.

The trust says it reported its first case of MRSA, a bacteria which can cause a serious infection that needs immediate treatment with antibiotics, in over two years, amid a regional increase in cases.

An increase in infections related to C-difficile, a bacteria that causes severe diarrhoea, often linked to antibiotic use, has also been identified.

The trust identified 63 cases, meaning it was close to breaching guidance to keep cases below 65.

Health officials say the trust had been further impacted by staff sickness.

The overall sickness absence level was 5.8 per cent, above a target of 4.2 per cent.

Rachel Eddie, chief operating officer, said the trust has taken a number of ‘exceptional actions’ due to the pressures, but has so far avoided declaring any critical incidents.

She continued: “Disappointingly we have seen a decrease in performance against our ambulance handover times, our four-hour emergency access standard which was improving really well up until the autumn after the initiatives we took last summer.

“And our number of patients who were in [the emergency department] for more than 12 hours has also started to deteriorate.

“We have seen some incredibly pressures, the new year is probably where we hit our worst point in terms of this winter.

“I think we have managed to manage it and control it very well.

"We haven’t declared any critical incidents, we have managed to manage that internally.”