Hospital 'unable to deliver comprehensive care'
GooglePatient safety is at risk as a hospital struggles to cope with "significant and growing demand" for its services, health chiefs have acknowledged.
The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Barrow's Furness General, said it had declared the highest level of internal alert to enable it to take "additional steps to maintain safe services".
Operations Pressure Escalation Levels are an NHS measurement of stress on services with category four declared when a hospital is "unable to deliver comprehensive care".
The trust said it had reached "a point where we cannot continue in the way we are due to the increased risk of harm".
In a statement, it announced it was struggling to discharge patients and would take "some immediate actions" in an effort to tackle demand.
Those measures include "utilising all alternative options to the emergency department", and cancelling non-essential meetings and activities in order to "redirect clinician time to patient-facing activities".
It added the public could help manage periods of high demand "by ensuring they are seeking help from the most appropriate health services and only attending A&E for serious accidents and emergencies".
It is advising anyone feeling unwell to look at the NHS 111 website for treatment advice.
It added: "Our teams continue to work exceptionally hard and we would like to reassure our patients and the public that despite the challenges faced, essential services remain fully open for anyone who needs them.
"If you require urgent medical help, please continue to come forward."
Patients with appointments are being urged to turn up and if they cannot, to cancel so the slots can be allocated to other patients.
