People are urged to do what they can to help the under-pressure NHS.
The North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust is seeing an increase of patients with COVID-19 in its hospitals – and although the numbers remain low, health chiefs said, they have doubled in a week.
Rachel Eastham, matron for emergency care at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The public can really help us by doing very simple things, if you need to access our services; be that an appointment or our A&E department, please come to the department alone.
“Unless you need support or are the parent / guardian of a child who requires treatment you should not bring others with you into the hospital.
“This is because as a health care setting we need to maintain the highest levels of infection prevention standards on our sites including social distancing.
“We have seen people bring whole families with them to A&E, and with the increase in the infection rate in the community the more people who come to our sites unnecessarily the more likely we are to bring the virus in.”
The trust added that while it continued to prioritise the most urgent patients those with less urgent needs are advised to seek advice from their GP, an urgent treatment centre, a pharmacist or NHS 111 online first.
Dr Craig Melrose, clinical director for A&E at NCIC said: “We are seeing an increase in the numbers of patients with COVID in our hospitals. The numbers remain low but have doubled in a week and we must understand the risk this poses.
“Healthcare services remain open but the increase in transmission rates is having a direct effect on how we can deliver them. We are trying our best but please be aware that across our services we are prioritising the sickest people first and for some people this may mean you are waiting longer than we would like to get treatment or support.
“Finally I urge everyone to please be kind to our staff, we are all working incredibly hard and I promise you we are trying our best. It isn’t acceptable to verbally abuse anyone let alone those who are trying to help you.”
