Two major hospitals declared a critical incident yesterday afternoon after facing significant pressures on their services, with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust reporting some of the highest attendances on record to their emergency departments in the last two weeks.
Patients at Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital are facing unacceptable and lengthy waits in corridors at A&E. The Trust urged the public to only attend A&E for serious accidents or life-threatening emergencies, and asked families to collect relatives ready for discharge as early as possible to free up hospital beds.
Tracy Pilcher, chief nurse at NUH, said on Tuesday that they were seeing significant pressures across their hospitals and in particular in the A&E department, where more than 100 patients were waiting to be seen. She noted that staff had been working hard over the previous 24 hours to mitigate the pressures, but the Trust still found itself in an incredibly difficult position.
The Trust explained that this September, they had seen 2,000 more A&E attendances than in September 2025, with staff working under extreme pressure. Declaring a critical incident allows the Trust to draw on additional support from across the wider health system.
Patients were urged to use NHS 111 online or call 111 if their situation is not life-threatening, or to use their GP, local pharmacy, or an urgent treatment centre instead. Anyone with flu or respiratory illness symptoms was asked not to visit loved ones in hospital until better.
