Hospitals in Scunthorpe and Grimsby continue to operate under extreme pressure and the local community is being asked to help by choosing the most appropriate NHS service, which is not always A&E, and refraining from visiting hospital if they are suffering with diarrhoea and/or vomiting, until they have been without symptoms for at least 48 hours.
Jayne Adamson, director of people and organisational effectiveness, said: “Our staff are already working under very difficult circumstances but the situation has worsened over the last week with an increase in cases of winter ailments in our local community including diarrhoea and/or vomiting (D&V) and flu which is affecting both our staff and patients. We have rising levels of staff sickness and our bed capacity has been reduced, particularly at Grimsby hospital, where ward closures are in place to prevent the spread of D&V.”
Winter bugs, such as Norovirus, spread very quickly in environments such as hospitals and care homes. While most people fight off winter ailments with rest, self-care and over the counter medicines, they can make others, who are not already in the best of health, very poorly. Hospital staff can also become ill and have to take off work which puts pressure on hospital wards which are already extremely busy at this time of year.
Jayne continued: “We realise that people will want to visit friends and relatives in hospital, but patients are particularly vulnerable to these types of infections. If you have symptoms of vomiting and, or diarrhoea, or flu like symptoms, the best thing you can do to protect your loved ones is to delay any visits to hospital until you are fully recovered and have been symptom free for two days.”
In light of the pressures facing the Trust some planned operations and routine appointments will continue to be postponed until Friday February 23.
Jayne explained: “We have to prioritise our most vulnerable patients, which are those requiring urgent and emergency treatment; including cancer patients. Regrettably we feel we have no option but to continue to postpone a number of planned operations and appointments.
“This equates to a small number of patients - approximately 15% of operations will be affected. We do not want to be in a position where we are cancelling anyone’s procedure or appointment but we have to prioritise those most in need.”
All cancer operations will continue to go ahead as planned as will urgent and emergency care. Patients affected will be contacted by the Trust directly. Anyone who does not hear from the Trust should attend their appointment as planned.
