Hospital bosses reassure public over A&E

The public should have confidence in accident and emergency (A&E) departments this winter and patients needing instant treatment will be cared for, hospital bosses say.
Pinderfields HospitalPinderfields Hospital
Pinderfields Hospital

The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which looks after Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury hospitals, says that although seasonal pressures are likely to mean longer waits for some patients, those needing immediate or life-saving attention will be looked after.

The trust said in October it may postpone some non-emergency surgery over the winter to ensure there was enough frontline staff to working in A&E.

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But at a board meeting on Thursday, the trust's director of operations Trudie Davies said people across the Wakefield district and in Dewsbury could expect good quality and prompt care if they had a serious ailment.

She said: "If patients have an injury they will be seen and treated in A&E and they will be treated appropriately.

"I have no doubt at all that if someone has trauma for example, or they needs immediate life-saving emergency care, they will get it.

"I am not nervous about that at all.

"But if someone comes to our department (A&E), with a broken fingernail, they may have to wait."

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The trust says that it has seen "peaks and troughs" in admissions of children to hospital during the winter, with respiratory conditions the most common cause.

But it has not yet had to deal with any cases of flu with since temperatures dropped in the autumn, which was described as "unusual" for the time of year.

Local Democracy Reporter Service