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Wednesday , October 14 2026

What happens when a critical incident is declared?

Critical incidents are declared as an attempt to get patients to think carefully about what part of the NHS they seek treatment from.

People are asked only to call 999 or attend accident and emergency (A&E) departments for serious and life-threatening emergencies.

Patients are urged to consider phoning 111 for less pressing complaints as well as using urgent treatment centres for non-emergencies, such as sprains, cuts and bites.

Other advice commonly issued is to use pharmacies for minor ailments and to avoid visiting people in hospital if you are sick.

As part of NUH’s critical incident, the trust has said the emergency department will see the sickest patients first and anyone attending with conditions not deemed an emergency “will have an extremely long wait and may be redirected to use other services instead,”.

NUH said while it only had an A&E department at the QMC, the critical incident was impacting all of its sites.

The trust added it would take several actions as a result of the critical incident:

  • Rearranging some elective procedures to create capacity for the sickest patients. Anyone affected will be contacted, NUH said

  • Opening all available beds and spaces

  • Redeploying staff to help alleviate pressures

  • Stopping non-essential meetings and activity


BBC News

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