Accident & emergency departments in north Cumbria are under pressure as numbers of people accessing services soar.
The A&E departments at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital are seeing up to two thirds more people than normal.
Dr Emma Farrow, A&E consultant, said: “This week in particular we have seen a rise in the numbers of people coming to A&E at the Cumberland Infirmary and the West Cumberland Hospital.
“At times there have been nearly 200 people waiting between both sites. Once you have been seen, those who need to be admitted are experiencing very long waits for a bed because of the number of people already in hospital. Our priority is always patient safety and we monitor everyone in the departments closely.
“We always prioritise those who are in the most need and those with life threatening conditions.
“If you or someone you know, needs urgent help, may be suffering a heart attack or stroke, or is in a life threatening situation always call come to A&E or call 999.
“However, If you have an issue that is not life threatening or serious then you will need to wait a number of hours to be seen.
“There are lots of other options available for if you have an urgent healthcare need, including 111 online, pharmacy, or your GP. You can also access our urgent treatment centres in Penrith or Keswick.”
The clinical teams at the urgent treatment centres in Penrith and Keswick can deal with anything non-urgent.
People are urged to access urgent treatment centres rather than A&E if your issue is not urgent and health bosses say the wait will be far less than A&E.
Keswick UTC is open from 8.30am to 6pm and Penrith from 8am to 10pm.
The North Cumbria Integrated Care Trust, which runs the hospitals, said the pressure was expected to increase further during industrial action next week but it was currently working on plans to make sure as many services as possible were maintained during the industrial action.
Dr Adrian Clements, executive medical director, said: “We are putting plans in place to make sure that services can continue safely during the industrial action.
“We will need to stand down some planned appointments and procedures but we will contact anyone who is affected by this directly. It is very important that you attend any appointment you have unless we contact you to say otherwise.
“We are also working hard to make sure that patients are discharged in a timely way that we can make sure we can admit those who need acute care.”
