healthmedicinet

15 November 2014
Last updated at 08:11

The hospital asked patients to only visit AE if they have a “serious or life-threatening condition”

Colchester Hospital has declared a “major incident” following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The hospital trust said the major incident is likely to last a week, and asked patients to visit Accident Emergency only if they have a “serious or life-threatening condition”.

The CQC raised “safeguarding concerns” following an inspection on Wednesday.

The watchdog found staff struggling to cope with “unprecedented demand”.

‘Command and control’

The hospital’s interim chief executive Dr Lucy Moore said the focus was on “discharging patients.”

She told the BBC: “By declaring a major incident and running a sort of command and control process, we ask all our staff to prioritise that.”

Dr Moore added that by “diverting resources away from things that can wait”, staff could “treat as a priority the discharge of patients”.

In July the hospital was given an overall rating of “requires improvement”.

The CQC said its latest report on the hospital was due and said further inspections at the trust will be carried out.

Wednesday’s inspection focussed on the hospital’s accident and emergency department and emergency assessment unit.

News of the hospital’s problems came on the day the government announced an extra £300m would go towards helping the NHS cope during the winter months by boosting staff numbers and services, particularly at weekends.

But Dr Mark Porter, of the British Medical Association, described the extra funding as a “sticking plaster” designed to mask “the fact that a funding gap of £30bn is opening up in the NHS”.