Hampshire Hospitals Declare Critical Incident As Beds Full

This week, Hampshire Hospitals NHS trust declared a critical incident, saying hospitals are completely full.

The Trust looks after the Royal Hampshire Hospital in Winchester and Basingstoke Hospital, both serving East Hampshire. This is the second time the trust has declared a critical incident in less than a month.

After months of warnings from a local Liberal Democrat MP about the winter crisis, the trust were forced to urge patients to seek alternatives. On Monday, the Trust said they had "no capacity to admit further patients needing our care".

This cannot be allowed to continue. Everyone deserves access to the care they need, when they need it.

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Lib Dem MP Danny Chambers spoke to the BBC urging the government to fix both the 'front door' of the NHS - GPs and primary care - and the 'back door' of the NHS - social care. Listen here.

When the Trust declared a critical incident in December, the Lib Dem MP for Winchester wrote to Labour ministers demanding immediate help to prevent a repeat occurence. Sadly, events repeated themselves this week.

Unfortunately this is not uncommon, with Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust - who run Queen Alexandra Hospital serving the south of East Hampshire - having declared similar capacity problems last year.

There is no fixing the NHS without fixing social care so that people can be discharged into the community safely, freeing up crucial hospital beds.

During the last critical incident in December, nearly 200 beds were taken up at Winchester Hospital by people who were ready to be discharged, if help was available at home or in the community.

Sadly, the government recently put off their "first steps" of social care reform until 2028. It's just not good enough.

To fix the NHS, everyone needs proper access to their GP to catch health issues before they are urgent. This is only achievable if there are more GPs to see people.

People from all over East Hampshire have already signed the petition for more GPs. Have you?

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East Hampshire needs more GPs

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