Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Integrated Care System (ICS) has said it is experiencing significant levels of demand for all health and care services across the county. The move means some non-urgent operations requiring patients to stay in hospital will be postponed to prioritize those with the most urgent clinical need. Demand has been boosted by “relatively high” numbers of patients in hospital and community beds with Covid, as well as large numbers of patients arriving at hospitals for other conditions. “Additional challenges” have also been caused by the ongoing heat wave, the ICS said, leading to “significant pressure” on the system. The critical incident affects four NHS trusts within the county. These are: Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, Robert Jones Agnes Hunt Orthopedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Community Health Shropshire. Patients who have not been contacted immediately about postponing an operation have been asked to attend appointments as usual. The postponement of non-urgent procedures comes as NHS figures revealed this week that waiting lists for routine treatment reached a record 6.7 million people in July. Regretting that such a step was “necessary”, the ICS added that it was “important that we can focus on patients who need urgent and urgent care as a priority”. “The critical incident is an indication of the serious pressure the system is under,” he added. “Our teams continue to work extremely hard and we would like to reassure the public that despite the challenges they face, our services remain open for anyone who needs them.” Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Shropshire is not the first area to declare a critical incident in the health and care system this summer. Last week, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust made the move due to “prolonged pressure” on its services. As a result, he said he could only treat patients with life-threatening conditions and injuries at St Mary’s Hospital in Newport. The scheme has since been abolished. Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS also announced a critical incident in its health services in July due to a significant number of Covid cases, a lack of capacity in the care system and high levels of patients arriving at hospital requiring treatment. It has since abolished the scheme.
