Major incident status declared at city hospital
CORNWALL'S main hospital has launched its major incident plan after an outbreak of norovirus closed two wards and operations were postponed.
The Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro said a combination of a high level of emergency admissions, the norovirus outbreak and delays in discharging patients had led to the major incident plan being implemented.
Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) said yesterday two wards and three bays were currently closed due to norovirus and about 20 routine operations had been postponed on weekdays.
However, the trust said the majority of day cases were going ahead as normal and surgery at St Michael's and West Cornwall hospitals was unaffected. Chief operating officer at RCHT, Jo Gibbs, said: "Due to the combination of high levels of emergency admissions, cases of norovirus and delays in discharging some patients, RCHT is using its major incident plan to work with health and social care colleagues to manage the current demand on hospital and community services.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Sunday, May 26 2013
"One of the top priorities is to minimise the risk of the spread of nororvirus in our hospitals. We are asking visitors not to come to hospital unless their visit is essential and we are sorry that it has been necessary to postpone a number of non-urgent operations. However, we hope patients will understand the need to focus on acutely ill patients in need of emergency admission.
"Our clinical teams are working flexibly to care for patients needing admission and we have opened additional beds in our hospitals. Urgent cancer surgery is going ahead and all other cases are being reviewed on a day-by-day basis. Patients whose operations are postponed are being contacted individually.
"Major incident status allows us to heighten our response. We maintain regular contact with our health and social care colleagues throughout the day agreeing a combined response to minimise the impact of the current pressures."
Graham Webster, vice-chairman of Health Initiative Cornwall, said the incident showed how little slack there was in the system.
He said: "The fact is that we have only got enough beds to cope with the normal demands of the service on a good day.
"When you have winter bed pressures or even summer bed pressures, the system cannot cope and it snaps.
"No one is blaming RCHT, but the reality is that the system is broken."
Visitors are asked to ring the ward they intend to visit for advice before setting out.
Comments
by twofeetofsnow
Thursday, March 07 2013, 12:15PM
“RCHT has for years decided that centralisation was the key to quality health care in Cornwall, patients from as far away as Sennen were told that they had to be seen at Treliske rather than West Cornwall Hospital, despite the fact that a ten minute appointment meant a day of bus travel in all weathers. Now they have a crisis, the outlying hospitals that have been run down, closed and sold off to property developers...( Redruth, Tehidy etc.) are desperately needed due to poor management of bed space and community facilities. W.C.H. has a medical ward that has been closed for so long the nurses all now work at Treliske, why is this ward not being used for overspill patients? Poltair Hospital is closed due to understaffing, for years it served as geriatric care for a large area yet for some strange reason all that community medical network has disappeared. For years Treliske has seemed nothing more than empire building as more local care was shut down and moved to truro. What I ask is just what has all this achieved given its current inability to cope with a health problem?”