A&E Major Incident Plans: What Are They?

A surge in demand at emergency departments has forced several hospital trusts to activate major incident plans.

:: Gloucester Royal, Cheltenham General Hospital, Scarborough Hospital and the University Hospitals of North Midlands in Staffordshire have implemented the emergency measure.

:: Others, including the Royal Surrey County Hospital urged people to stay away from A&E unless their case was a genuine emergency.

:: Major incidents are declared when patient demand reaches a level that could disrupt hospital services, and usually mean that hospitals are approaching full bed capacity.

:: One of the causes is the overwhelming numbers of people attending their accident and emergency units.

:: In the immediate run-up to Christmas, the NHS treated 446,500 people at A&E - up 38,000 on the same week last year.

:: The College of Emergency Medicine believes that between 15% and 30% of patients attending emergency departments could be treated elsewhere.

:: Delays can also be caused by so-called bed-blocking, where people cannot be discharged due to a lack of care facilities in the community.

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