Island health services are continuing to experience significant ongoing pressure, which has led to more operations at St Mary’s Hospital being cancelled tomorrow (Wednesday).
It has been another busy day in the Emergency Department at St Mary’s with 21 admissions already today (as at 16:00hrs) against an expected 27 cases between 00:01hrs and 23:59hrs.
In the last 7 days (to Sunday 4th January) there was a 12.3% increase in attendances at the Emergency Department and a 16.9% increase in attendances at the Beacon Walk-in Centre compared to the same period last year. In one day (Monday 5th January) the Community Nursing team had 60 additional contacts with patients.
Staff across ambulance, community, hospital and mental health services are continuing to work additional hours to ensure that service levels and safety is maintained.
Despite the pressures, over 60 procedures have been undertaken in the operating theatres, many day surgery.
A limited number of in-patient operations have had to be cancelled to date, with further in-patient operations due to take place on Wednesday (7th January) now cancelled. Patients who are affected by this will be contacted directly and their operations will be rescheduled as quickly as possible.
There is no change to outpatients or day surgery for Wednesday 7th January, and patients should attend as usual.
Executive Director of Nursing and Workforce at Isle of Wight NHS Trust Alan Sheward said:
“Health and social care staff across the Island have responded magnificently to the ongoing surge we are seeing across the Island. The pressures here on the Island mirror what is happening elsewhere.
“Although we are close we have not as yet had to declare a ‘Black Alert’ or ‘Major Incident’ and of course we are unable to simply divert patients to another hospital or service. We’re grateful to Islanders who continue to make use of our Island based NHS 111 service for advice and guidance.”
