Hospitals’ emergency plea meets criticism

Hospitals’ emergency plea meets criticism

A plea from local hospitals for people to only visit A&E in a ‘genuine emergency’ as the pressure from Covid-19 increases sparked a backlash on social media.

Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust – in charge of hospitals in Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Goole – said: “Our emergency departments (A&Es) are becoming extremely busy and we are caring for an increasing amount of patients with coronavirus.

“Please help us during these difficult times by only visiting our emergency departments if is a genuine emergency. A&E is not an alternative to a GP appointment.”

However the plea met with a mixed response from followers on social media.

One said: “Ask GPs to stop sending people they should deal with.”

Another said: “The stats don’t even back this statement up. All this is a PR stunt to keep people scared. These hospitals have never been so calm and quiet. Disgraceful!”

While another stated: “Stop scaremongering! The NHS coped in March and it’ll cope now especially as there are less cases.

“I’m more concerned about the thousands of cancer and mental health patients who have been abandoned during this pandemic. They’re still not getting the help or treatment they desperately need and have been cast to the wolves.”

Another said: “You are all doing a fantastic job not only during these difficult times, but always.”

NLaG today (Tuesday) thanked everyone for their comments and added: “We thought it may be useful to provide you with some more information on the pressure faced by our hospitals – on 1 October we were caring for 9 patients with Covid-19 – that has increased to 44 as of this morning.

“Alongside this we have seen just under 7,000 attendances at our Emergency Departments already this month.

“We are also managing a backlog of appointments from March and have had to make changes to how we work including the provision of segregated areas for Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 patients and changes to waiting areas to allow for social distancing.

“We are one of the biggest employers in the region and just as cases are increasing in the general population, our staff are also increasingly being affected by Covid-19 with many either off work due to having a positive test result themselves or due to being in self-isolation.”