Critical incident at University Hospitals Dorset stood down

The hospital trust, which runs Poole, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch hospitals, declared a critical incident on Wednesday, with warnings some services would have to be 'slowed down'.

They said: "University Hospitals Dorset has declared a critical incident due to the very limited number of beds available and the high number of staff who are off work either isolating or symptomatic with Covid-19.

"This critical incident is an indication of the serious pressure we are facing and demonstrates how we are taking immediate steps to ensure we can still provide our critical services. We are working extremely hard to ensure our patients are kept safe."

Stand down

Today, in a message to staff, the tactical command group said: "Following our trust tactical group review today, we have stepped down our critical incident status.

"The group considered whether we were able to maintain critical services over the next period and concluded that we had robust plans in place to maintain these services.

Read more: 

• Under pressure: Rising Omicron cases see public service staff shortages
• Omicron surge in Dorset likely to be at London levels soon warns health chief
• Shocking figures from intensive care show reality of Covid hospitalisations in Dorset

"However, our hospitals remain very busy and the number of staff we have self-isolating and symptomatic are also still high.

"We anticipate that we have some very difficult weeks ahead of us and might need to go back into critical incident to help us ensure we can still provide our critical services.

"Thank you to all colleagues and our external partners for your hard work and support to help improve the situation."