Nottingham A&E regularly exceeds intended capacity by more than 150 patients a day

Callum Parke/PA Wire

By Erin Dean and Daniel Pye

A Nottingham hospital trust has declared a critical incident after regularly receiving 150 patients a day more at A&E than the department is designed to hold.

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) said the emergency department (ED) at Queen’s Medical Centre is designed for 350 patients but has regularly been seeing 500 – and on one day this month had more than 550.

Staff sickness and winter infections since Christmas have contributed to “severe and sustained pressure” in emergency care and on wards, the trust said in a statement.

The NUH said patients are having “unacceptable and lengthy waits on corridors”. Some elective procedures were being cancelled, non-essential meetings stopped and staff being redeployed to help alleviate pressures.

The NUH said the demand on its hospital beds had "exceeded all of our forecasted modelling".

Andrew Hall, chief operating officer at NUH, said: "We are experiencing pressures like never before.

'Deeply sorry for poor experience'