Over a dozen ambulances wait hours to transfer patients at NHS Lanarkshire hospitals this week

On Tuesday, October 24, NHS Lanarkshire saw such a rise above its capacity that they had to divert Lanarkshire patients to hospitals in other NHS council areas.

Reports came in on Tuesday from staff and residents adjacent to the hospital claiming there to be up to 15 ambulances queuing at University Hospital Wishaw (formerly Wishaw General Hospital).

This meant that ambulaces would have to wait hours outside the hospital before they were able to transfer patients to staff - having the knock-on effect of little to no ambulances out on the road dealing with crises.

One man on Twitter even reported that the first ambulance crew left the Hospital grounds after having been there for for 10 hours.

Judith Park, director of acute services, NHS Lanarkshire, said: “Across our acute sites pressures have continued to increase due to a number of factors including Covid infections, rising A&E attendances, and staffing pressures.

"All three of our hospitals are currently operating well above normal capacity which is having a significant impact on service provision and waiting times at our accident and emergency departments.

“Our network of hospitals work together to respond to demand and this includes diverting patients before they arrive at a particular site when it is facing high demand.”

Wishaw wasn’t the only hospital to see a massive spike in service. Other NHS Lanarkshire hospitals, like University Hospital Hairmyres and University Hospital Monklands, also had to divert ambulances.

Judith Park continued: “Unfortunately, as all three of our hospital sites are experiencing high demands this led to a decision by the Scottish Ambulance Service to divert Lanarkshire patients to other Board areas for a short period of time.

“Ambulances are waiting a number of hours at our sites before being able to transfer patients to our staff and this is having an affect not only on the patients waiting at our A&Es but those patients waiting elsewhere for an ambulance

“By diverting patients to other Board areas this allowed our staff to triage those patients waiting to be seen and get them assessed and either admitted or discharged following treatment

"All our A&E departments remain open but we are urging everyone intending to turn up that, unless their condition is life-threatening, to consider the alternatives. You can call NHS 24 on 111 day or night, where you will be directed to the right NHS service. If you just need health care advice, then please use the NHS Inform website.”