Hospitals are deluged with emergencies

The snowy conditions over the weekend have brought with them additional pressures on the health service which make it all the more vital that emergency departments are kept free for the people who really need them.

At the start of the weekend there were 25 patients booked to have surgery on broken wrists and ankles this week, by Monday (January 21) that had doubled to 50, and is very likely to keep increasing as people venture out this week.

Extra operating lists will be put on but the plea to the public is please consider all the alternatives and use

Accident and Emergency as a last, not a first resort.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals’ Chief Nurse Sherree Fagge said: “The Royal Sussex County Hospital is full of very sick patients, as it always is in January. The cold weather is never good for people with long-term conditions and the frail elderly who make up the vast majority of our patients.

“The snowy conditions this weekend have just added to the pressure the hospital and our staff are under and one of the things the public can do is to help keep our emergency departments, and the highly trained staff who work in them, free for genuine emergencies.

“There are a number of alternatives for people with less urgent or minor illnesses and injuries, in particular the Brighton Station Health Centre which is open 8 to 8 every day.”