Overcrowded A&Es ‘much more dangerous now because of covid’

Emergency departments across England are reporting ‘dangerous’ overcrowding similar to levels seen pre-covid, and struggling to maintain social distancing, A&E leaders have warned.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine said it was concerned about covid spreading among the most vulnerable patients, as overall transmission rates continue to rise sharply across the UK.

It was always anticipated that A&E activity would return to pre-covid levels this winter, following a significant drop-off in A&E activity during the spring and early summer, and that service transformation would be needed to help maintain social distancing. But the emergence of widespread overcrowding so far ahead of winter is of serious concern to system leaders.

A&E staff were already being forced to make difficult trade-offs over which patients to isolate, the college’s vice president told HSJ. He also urged NHS leaders not to place unrealistic expectations on the impact a new model involving walk-in patients booking slots by phone could make on addressing overcrowding in emergency departments.

RCEM vice president Adrian Boyle said the NHS was “largely back to the pre-covid levels of crowding” but it was “much more dangerous now because of covid”.

He said: “We are hearing that most emergency departments can’t maintain social distancing safely and staff are having to make fairly difficult trade-offs about which people need to be isolated. No one can be safely social distanced in a corridor.”

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Source: HSJ, 21 September 2020