Critical incident declared at two major NHS hospitals after A&E overwhelmed

TWO major hospitals have declared a “critical incident” as they face “significant pressure” on their services.

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust said hospitals have seen some of the “highest attendances on record” in their A&E departments over the past two weeks.

Patients at Queen’s Medical Center and Nottingham City Hospital face “unacceptable and long waits” in the corridors at A&E, it added.

The Trust announced the critical incident yesterday afternoon, urging the public to only attend A&E for serious accidents or life-threatening emergencies.

It also asked families to gather family members who are ready for discharge “as early as possible” to free up hospital beds.

Tracy Pilcher, chief nurse at NUH, said on Tuesday: “We are seeing significant pressure across our hospitals and particularly in our A&E department where we have more than 100 patients waiting to be seen and have seen the highest attendance on record. Not just once, but three times in two weeks.

“Over the past 24 hours, staff have been working hard to do everything they can to reduce pressure, focusing on getting patients seen and home quickly and safely.

“However, today we still find ourselves in an incredibly difficult position and have declared a critical incident to protect our patients and support our staff.”

She continued: “We recognize that significant waits to be seen and corridor care is not the way our staff want to work or our patients want to be seen, and for that we are very sorry.

“Please be reassured that we are doing everything we can and hope that the actions we take will improve the situation as soon as possible.”

“Getting patients out of hospital when they are ready is vital to improving our position.

“We currently have 200 patients in our hospitals who no longer need to be here.

“If you have a family member in our hospitals who is ready to come home, we urge you to collect them as soon as possible.

“This will help those patients who return home, who recover better, and those who urgently need our care.”

The Trust explained that this September, they saw 2,000 more A&E attendances than in September 2025, with staff working under “extreme pressure”.

Declaring a critical incident allows the trust to draw on additional support from the wider healthcare system.

NUH has warned that people with non-life-threatening conditions can face extremely long waits at emergency departments.

Patients are urged to use NHS 111 online or call 111 if their situation is not life-threatening.

The public is also encouraged to use their GP, local pharmacy or an urgent care center instead of visiting A&E.

Anyone with flu or other respiratory symptoms has been asked not to visit their loved ones in hospital until they are better.

The Trust previously declared a critical incident for similar pressure in February, while in January it sounded the alarm about the increase in the number of flu and norovirus patients.

It comes as figures released by NHS England earlier this month showed that more than 1,600 people were forced to wait over 12 hours in A&E every day in September.

A total of 50,582 patients in England endured a half-day wait before being admitted, transferred or discharged.

NUH itself admitted 979 patients who waited over 12 hours last month.

The Trust said it would provide an update on its current critical incident the morning.

The Sun has approached NUH for comment.