Pressures at hospitals in Morecambe and Blackpool
Local system health and care partners including general practice are experiencing considerable seasonal pressures and we would like to thank you and your teams for all your hard work.
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust is experiencing major operational pressures and has declared OPEL 4, indicating severe pressure where patient safety and care delivery are at significant risk, requiring major external support and system-wide action to manage overwhelming demand. Until this morning, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had also been at OPEL 4 since the start of the year. The emergency departments are extremely busy and patients and ambulance services are experiencing very long waits. All NHS and social care teams are doing everything they can to see and treat patients as quickly and safely as possible.
The ICB is continuing to push communications with the public to advise them of the range of self-care and other options available such as pharmacy first. We’d be grateful if you could mention to any patients advised to attend A&E that they may face a longer wait and to prepare accordingly, for example, ensuring their mobile phone is charged. Please also continue to use services such as same day emergency care (SDEC), care coordination and virtual wards.
Thank you for your help.
