Ashford and St Peter’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has struggled to keep up with the demand this week, declaring a major incident that is likely to last for at least the next 24 hours and warning people to stay away from accident and emergency unless it is a real emergency.

This comes as data for England was published today by the NHS for the week ending December 28. Christmas is traditionally a busy time for hospitals and this data showed the trust had not met the Government target of seeing 95 per cent of admissions to A&E in four hours, having seen 85.6 per cent in four hours.

The number of patients spending between four and 12 hours waiting to be admitted in that week were 88.

Country-wide figures showed A&E departments had flagged under huge demand, seeing the worst national performance for 10 years.

A spokesman for the trust said: “Declaring a major incident (which we did at the weekend) allows us to mobilise additional staff and take a more targeted approach in how we manage outpatient clinics and planned operations and this is resulting in an improving situation [today January 6] within our hospitals.”

An urgent message issued by the trust yesterday continued today as it faced “unprecedented demand” and needs to prioritise their most urgent patients.

In a statement online, it said: “We are currently under severe pressure - please don’t come to A&E unless you are a real emergency.

“Non-emergency patients are likely to have an extremely long wait and will be taking staff away from caring for patients who need emergency or lifesaving care.”

Some appointments were cancelled on January 5 with patients affected called and informed.

No appointments were cancelled today.

Chief executive Suzanne Rankin said: “We expect to remain at major incident status for at least the next 24 hours to allow the actions we are taking to take full effect.

“I would like to praise and thank colleagues in the hospital who have been working extremely hard on behalf of patients to meet this demand.”

Other trusts throughout the country have faced similar difficulties, with hospitals in north Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Gloucestershire struggling to cope with the demand and declaring a major incident.

Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, tweeted on Tuesday, January 6: “English A&Es remain best in world on waiting times - thanks to brilliant work by NHS staff in challenging circs.”

The trust sent out a tweet on December 31 saying A&E departments were very busy and reminded people to use the correct NHS services.

People are asked to think carefully before coming to A&E, and reminded unless it is a real emergency they are likely to get quicker treatment by going to a GP, local walk-in centre or the local pharmacist.

Weybridge Community Hospital, Church Street, Weybridge, is open Monday to Friday from 7am to 7.30pm, and 9am to 4pm on weekends and bank holidays.

Ashford Hospital, London Road, is open 8am to 10pm, 365 days of the year.

Woking Hospital, Heathside Road, is open Monday to Friday from 7am to 7.30pm, and 9am to 7pm on weekends and bank holidays.

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