In response to sustained demand for its services, Isle of Wight NHS Trust has declared a Critical Incident.
A continuing increase in demand for emergency care has put the Trust under significant pressure and they are currently only able to treat new patients with life-threatening conditions and injuries. Delays in discharging people home or into social care settings mean that St Mary’s Hospital has reached capacity.
In order to maintain the safety of their services, some planned surgical activity has been postponed, but the trust will continue to prioritise cancer treatment and urgent operations, as well as people who have already had long waits for their treatment.
Steve Parker, Medical Director, said:
“The safety of our patients and our staff remains our top priority. We are working closely with partners to improve the flow of patients through the hospital and we are appealing to our local community to help us ensure that patients get home as soon as possible and to only come to our Emergency Department (ED) for life-threatening conditions and injuries.
“While we are in this period of sustained high demand, we urge you not to attend the ED unless it’s an emergency: NHS 111 online can help you find where to get help and support.”
The trust is asking members of the public to help by:
- Collecting family and friends from hospital as soon as they are ready to be discharged, to free up beds for those who need them.
- Visit NHS 111 online or call NHS 111 for heath advice, or alternatively contact your local pharmacist or GP.
- Think about the most appropriate NHS service for your needs and to only call 999 in the event of a life-threatening illness or injury.
- Stay away from our hospitals if you have symptoms, or are a contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
UPDATE @ 13:55 – Acting Chief Executive, Dr Nikki Turner, has said:
“With the support of our teams, who are working tirelessly and the support of the people of the Island, we have been able to relieve some of the pressure that we were facing this time yesterday.
We are still seeing a very high demand for our services and would encourage people to visit NHS 111 online to find out the best places get help and support. For life threatening emergencies and injuries people should still call 999.”
Pathetic response from a badly run hospital.
Why don’t they just say that being alive is actually an inconvenience to St Mary’s and the overpaid managers would have a much nicer day if the population would just go away and maybe curl up and die.
They could then get on uninterrupted with the important business of mismanaging huge swathes of public money.
How dare you say that.You have no idea how hard and long the staff work up there all day and night.Spend a day and night working along side the staff and you will soon change your mind.
Idiot…
you are so blinkered!
Read my comment and take in what I said, not what you thought I said….
Idiot…
Apologies to “Jen” – my reply was meant for “R.Waterman”
Fxxk you axxhole
Well said. These idiots have no idea how hard the staff at St Marys work. Total dedication from all of them.
The comment wasn’t having a go at the staff. It is the responsibility of management (at all levels) to anticipate and plan for future demand. The social care situation on the Island is a shambles, and you didn’t need any sort of crystal ball to foresee this. It’s been this way for a long time. What is disappointing is that there doesn’t appear any plan to resolve this, so the hospital will continue to be critical.
Don’t blame the hospital staff, blame the bloody Tory Government. Mrs May was to blame for so many Doctors, Nurses and Care staff leaving their jobs due to them being expected to work a 60 hour week!
I’m not saying top management are blameless but don’t slate the boots on the ground staff who do the best they can with what they’ve been given.
To be fair Truthsout is rubbishing the hierarchy not the staff. I have family and friends at St Marys and they are concerned with the management above them. All the staff as you state deserve praise .
St Mary’s could not run a Bath.
It’s not the hospital it is the council ignoring the fact that if they keep allowing houses to be built and hence more people over here, the hospital and indeed all the infrastructure will eventually buckle and fail. While I agree there are to many managers, it is not entirely the fault of the hospital. We need another hospital, not a stupid few add on buildings or sending people to the mainland.
The Isle of Wight nhs trust is not fit for purpose. This is what happens when you have pen pushers running a hospital. The nursing teams get the brunt of everyone’s temper when it’s out of their control. Bring back the cottage hospitals.
A ‘Critical Incident’ in St Mary’s terms is anyone who needs treatment for anything more than a nose bleed or nettle rash, everything else is usually referred to either Southampton or Pompey .
Having said that, NHS staff work tirelessly and under extreme pressure to deliver a high quality of care for the benefit of all.
We should never under appreciate the fact we have a free health service, a service that’s over exploited by some.
It’s far from free, of you work and pay your damn taxes, but seeing as a large .majority do neither……
Extra 1.25% rise in NI is our extra contribution and I would gladly do it for the amazing staff there but I think we all know they won’t get it. Also people not able to see GP’s so have no option but to go to the hospital
You dont honestly think your taxes etc will cover the treatments and medications you will need in a life time .
Is the the ‘new normal’? Hospital not interested unless you are bleeding to death, and then you will probably have to wait 8 hours. What an utter shambles, the COVID excuse doesn’t wash after 3 years i’m afraid. Good luck if you need hospital treatment
I had to take a friend to the UTC via 111 on Tuesday evening only to be told that the Doctor who deals with injuries was off duty in an hour and had 5 patients waiting so he was told to go to A&E or return in the morning. We tried A&E but finding patients lying on the floor, every seat taken and a look of a Beirut hospital we were told the wait would be 5-6 hours minimum as they already had 64 patients waiting… and this was on a Tuesday evening at 7:30! I ended up taking him back the next morning, but I suspect that many of those waiting would have been well served by their GP had one been available and willing to see the sick rather than simply ignore, refer to Hospital or make you wait 2 weeks.
how about sorting out the lazy doctors who play hide n seek but still get paid for it.no appointment STILL its disgusting.pleading theyv got more workload? nonsense …same as pre covid its just covid is still being used too slack off.enough is enough.a&e is taking the brunt because of it.
granted timewasters rock up too but itd a huge problem along with useless overpaid managers in therr obv
Have you forgot that it cost.the NHS 146 million pounds a year just to support these so called people with mental issues. The only thing mental with them if they ever got a job because they take in over a grand a week with all there so called entitled benefits. And if the islanders would stop inbreeding that would save millions. Take a look a wight crystals lot they have up there.Thats what happens when you breed with potatoes.
It’s them that take so long to come round and discharge you I waited 6 hours
That only works if you have got fiends and family to call on.
This is not NHS trust fault,they have many patients who need to be discharged but no IOW council care/homes or family willing to collect. It’s mainly down to Isle of Wight council closing down it’s own care homes and then not funding private homes. All the IOW council do is have meetings to talk about how it is but just want to save a few quid while others may die !.
Pre-covid, seeing a GP was not too bad, now GP’S are very difficult to see face to face…Why?.
Now the island has a much bigger population, St Mary’s can’t cope, especially during the summer time…
About time they built another hospital over here… and a tunnel to mainland so workers and specialists can get back and forth without paying ferries a weeks wage for one way ticket !!
It is down to poor management across the board, at both St Mary’s & the IOW Council. A relative was needing urgent treatment at a mainland hospital a few months ago. They waited 25 hours to be seen. Whilst visiting over here recently they again needed urgent treatment & was receiving it within 25 minutes of entering the building. The point I am making here is. If the hospital management can’t get a larger hospital built, then the IWC planning committee need to STOP allowing such huge developments. Otherwise we will all be experiencing 25 hour waiting time very soon.
Its too general to moan about the NHS, the management and board members hide behind the good deeds of the medical staff, it covers their shortfalls and inability to run an organisation. Contact your pharmacy, family doctor or 111(good luck with that one) they plead..Last week a family member was admitted to hospital for a recurring infection, they did not wish to go, the hospital could have done without them taking up a bed, but as their family doctor said the only place to treat them is in hospital, we do not have the time or resources to make them better, the NHS is fundamentlaly flawed, what it was originally designed it no can no longer deliver no matter how much money they give them.
And yet they keep building more and more housing estates over here. The island is collapsing.
If you shut Ryde Hospital, Shanklin Hospital, Frank James Hospital, the Private Hospital.
Demolish Polars etc, is it any wonder St Mary’s can not function properly.
People are not getting the care from their GP, so is it any wonder people end up in A&E very sick and needing admitting.
And the IOW Council still plan on building more and more houses. How can 1 island hospital cope. Answer: it can’t.
Never-ending health problems after the……. Can anyone add up yet!?
I wonder why there’s so many people getting ill, I know it’s the fools that couldn’t be bothered to listen
If you do as they ask and ring 111 for advice to alternative treatment they tell you to either ring G.P , if you already have and can’t see one then they tell you to go A&E ,even if its not life threatening. The problem is you can’t see a G.P the next day or even the next week so A&E becomes a big G.P surgery. Perhaps the doctors there need to tell G.Ps to start pulling their weight. Being a doctor used to be a vocation its never been a 9 to 5 job its a 24hr emergency job and they know that when they start training.
If, for whatever reason, the hospital can’t cope with the number of patients, why on earth are the Isle of Wight Council so keen to bring even more people here to the Island?
It simply doesn’t make sense and someone should be asking the Council why it’s happening.
The whole NHS is on it’s knees…..
If the doctors didnt keep sending patients up to the hospital instead of sorting them out theirself it would sort the problem
It’s very concerning that about 1and a half thousand people are dying a week above the 5 week rolling average. No explanation.Its occurring in many countries. Is this untalked about about problem causing problems at St Mary’s?