Hospital pressures remain high: Here’s what you can do to help

A plea to ‘choose NHS services wisely’ has been issued to patients and the public, as demand for Sherwood Forest Hospitals services remains high.

We continue to deal with high demand for our Urgent and Emergency Care services, high numbers of patients waiting to be admitted to wards and high numbers of patients who are well enough to be discharged from hospital but have nowhere appropriate ready to care for them.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals staff are working hard to continue to provide the best possible care to patients and staff will be prioritising urgent and emergency care and the most seriously ill patients at this time.

What you can do to help

Even when our hospitals are exceptionally busy, your NHS remains here for you and essential services remain fully open for anyone who needs them. There are number of things you can do to help the NHS right now, including:

• Only call 999 or attend accident and emergency departments for serious accidents and for genuine emergencies.
• When you need urgent medical care but it’s not an emergency, please visit NHS 111 online or call NHS111 for advice on how to get the care you need at any time of day or night.
• Urgent treatment centres – like the ones in Newark, Nottingham and Ripley – can help you get the care you need for dealing with the most common issues that people attend emergency departments for. They will often be able to help you get the care you need more quickly than accident and emergency departments if you are suffering from things like a burn or a sprain.
• For other non-urgent cases when you need medical advice and it’s not an emergency, please speak to your GP practice or a pharmacist.
• Please continue to treat all NHS staff with the respect they deserve. Sherwood Forest Hospitals has a zero-tolerance approach to abuse of any kind that targets our hard-working staff and volunteers when they are doing all they can to keep patients safe and supported.
• If you cannot make an appointment, please contact the number on your appointment letter so that it can be reallocated to another patient.