Critical incident declared within Shropshire's health and care system

The incident was declared following an increase in the number of patients with covid in the county's hospitals and extremely high levels of staff sickness across the local health and care system.

As a consequence ambulance delays are currently being experienced at the Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

A spokesperson for The Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System (ICS) said:

"There are currently 126 covid positive patients being looked after in Shropshire's two acute hospitals causing significant pressure on the system, it's the highest number of patients in our local hospitals at any point of the pandemic.

"A high number of staff with covid across the health and care system is also causing pressure. Staff sickness overall is reported at around 8.4 per cent which is causing an impact on local health services.

"Safe discharge of patients is also proving challenging, despite the continued hard work and dedicated focus of our community and local authority partners. As an example today we have 35 care homes closed due to covid outbreaks in Shropshire and four in Telford & Wrekin.

"In addition and as further examples, eight local GP practices are operating business continuity plans due to covid staff sickness and both NHS111 and Shropdoc (our GP Out of Hours service) report staffing issues.

"We are asking staff on leave to contact work to see if they are needed. We are also asking the public to wash hands, keep a distance and wear masks in crowded settings.

"We further ask patients to seek alternatives to attending A&E where appropriate. A&E remains open for emergencies and urgent care needs.

"We are doing everything we can as a health and care system to rapidly improve the position and we apologise for any negative impact this has on an individual’s experience of our local health and care system."