You can help the NHS by choosing the right service over the New Year holiday and into 2024.
The first week of January is traditionally the busiest time for hospitals, and this year it coincides with the latest round of industrial action by junior doctors, which starts on 3 January and continues for six days.
Our Emergency Department will be extremely busy throughout both the New Year holiday and industrial action that follows - so please choose the right service so that care is available to patients who need it most.
Only call 999 or attend emergency departments for serious accidents and genuine emergencies. For urgent medical help which isn’t an emergency, visit 111.nhs.uk or call 111.
For non-urgent cases, please speak to your GP or pharmacist.
For more information, please click here: https://improvinglivesnw.org.uk/our-work/our-campaigns/warm-and-well/find-the-right-health-service/
Please can we remind you not to visit our hospital if you are unwell or have any respiratory illness, such as a cold or flu, signs and symptoms of Covid or if you have tested positive for Covid.
Please do not come to the hospital for appointments or to visit relatives if you have symptoms of norovirus – also known as the winter vomiting bug - or if you have diarrhoea and or vomiting. Please ensure you have been clear of any symptoms for at least 48 hours before visiting the hospital.
When you are visiting, please help prevent infection spread by washing your hands with soap and water when entering the hospital and before you leave the wards rather than just using hand sanitiser. Please can we ask that if you are visiting you do not sit on the patient’s bed or eat or drink at the bedside.
In addition, if a close relative or friend is in hospital please can you support them to leave as soon as they are able to. We recognise this may not always be easy but it is really important that loved ones are collected from hospital as soon as they are ready to leave, either from the Emergency Department or from wards, to free up beds for patients needing emergency care.
