Black alert for King’s Lynn hospital

Chiefs at Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital are urging patients to consider alternative treatment options as the site remains on black alert.

The Gaywood Road site has been on an internal black alert, which generally means bed capacity has been reached, since Saturday as winter pressures have created problems.

A spokesman said: “The Queen Elizabeth Hospital has at no point closed its doors to patients.

“The hospital is currently on internal black alert, in the main due to winter pressures and the effect of those pressures on other care providers in the community.

“The public are reminded to consider alternative options for treatment during this time, those include GPs, pharmacies and the NHS 111 service. For full information visit www.ChooseMeNotAandE.co.uk”

The QEH previously announced a black alert at the beginning of December.

Elsewhere in Norfolk, the James Paget Hospital in Gorleston came off black alert at the weekend but the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital remains on black alert.

Denise Burke, from the Act on Ambulances campaign, spent the day with ambulance crews in north Norfolk on New Year’s Eve and found 13 ambulances queuing outside the N&NUH.

She said a further eight people were treated on trollies because of a lack of beds in A&E. She tweeted: “50 mins after arriving we can now offload patient from ambulance, beggars belief! Now space in corridor for trolley!”

On another occasion she said: “We were waiting for about three-quarters-of-an-hour to hand one patient over.”

Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge has declared a “critical black alert”.