Hospitals' winter crisis is starting early

Staff report 50-hour wait for beds as emergency departments hit by exceptional demand

- By HELENA VESTY & JOSEPH TIMAN

The A&E department at the Royal Oldham Hospital

GREATER Manchester's emergency departments are ‘extremely busy’ with reports of some patients waiting more than 50 hours for a bed.

The NHS trust that runs hospitals in Salford, Oldham and Bury is experiencing ‘exceptionally high levels of demand’ as its emergency department treats patients with ‘life-threatening’ and ‘critical’ illness and injuries while others face ‘longer waits’.

The Manchester Evening News understands Royal Oldham Hospital is particularly busy, with several sources reporting that some patients have waited more than 50 hours for a bed.

The Northern Care Alliance (NCA), which runs the hospital on Rochdale Road, says waiting times across Oldham’s emergency department remain ‘within normal ranges’ and ‘below reports of 50-hour waits.

However, one member of staff at the NCA told the M.E.N. there was a ‘52-hour wait for a bed’ in Oldham on Tuesday night. It comes as the government yesterday pledged to end corridor care in hospitals across England by 2029, ‘if not sooner’.

The commitment from health secretary Wes Streeting comes as the Royal College of Nursing declares a ‘crisis’ in corridor care with the number of sick patients waiting more than 12 hours in trolleys this winter rising by almost 9,000 per cent over the last six years. It has raised concerns that bed capacity in the NHS has ‘remained unchanged’ since 2019, while bed occupancy levels are regarded ‘unsafe’.