{"id":682912,"date":"2026-01-08T19:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T19:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682912\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T19:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T19:54:22","slug":"critical-incidents-declared-at-two-bristol-hospitals-amid-surge-in-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682912\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Critical incidents’ declared at two Bristol hospitals amid surge in demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

People have been urged to consult NHS 111 before going to A&E<\/p>\n

16:36, 08 Jan 2026Updated 16:37, 08 Jan 2026<\/p>\n

Bristol Royal Infirmary and Southmead Hospital<\/p>\n

Southmead Hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary are currently operating under \u2018critical incident\u2019 protocols due to overwhelming demand for their services<\/a>. The number of patients requiring treatment has resulted in bed space at each hospital being severely limited.<\/p>\n

At one point this afternoon (January 8), beds at the BRI were completely full, Bristol Live understands.<\/p>\n

A Bristol NHS Group spokesperson stressed that people would still be able to receive treatment if they went to hospital, but urged the public to only attend an emergency room if they needed to.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLocal services, including our hospitals, have escalation plans to help us manage the pressures,” the spokesperson said. “These are internal mechanisms that do not affect advice to patients and the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople across the region are being asked to help by choosing the right service for their needs and seeking guidance from NHS 111.\u201d<\/p>\n

A member of the public who attended Southmead’s emergency department on Wednesday (January 7) told Bristol Live they saw multiple patients were being treated in the hospital’s corridors.<\/p>\n

Hospitals typically declare a critical incident when they are struggling to keep up with the number of patients who require treatment. This can lead to measures such as doctors being pulled off wards to focus on emergency patients, and delayed treatment for non-urgent cases.<\/p>\n

\"BristolBristol Royal Infirmary is one of two hospitals in the city to be operating under a ‘critical incident’<\/p>\n

Patients may also be moved to different hospitals or service providers depending on their needs, and extra staff can be called in to try to cope with the demand.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Bristol NHS<\/a> Group\u2019s chief medical and innovation officer Professor Tim Whittlestone said the hospitals managed by the trust were experiencing exceptional demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinter pressures are being felt across all our local NHS services,\u201d he said. \u201cHospital sites within the Bristol NHS Group are currently experiencing exceptionally high demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

During critical incidents, patients requiring assistance for non-urgent issues typically face exceptionally long waits. There are also sometimes other restrictions put in place, such as a limit on how many people can accompany a patient to hospital.<\/p>\n

Professor Whittlestone said anyone with a hospital appointment should still attend unless told otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you require urgent medical assistance and are unsure where to go, please contact NHS 111 for guidance,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have an appointment, please attend as usual unless you hear from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has been a difficult winter for Bristol\u2019s hospitals due to factors such as an extremely bad flu season and severe weather<\/a>, including a current cold snap which has seen the Met Office issue warnings for much of the South West. Before Christmas, hospital staff in Bristol were urged to don facemasks amid an unprecedented surge in the number of flu cases being admitted to hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People have been urged to consult NHS 111 before going to A&E 16:36, 08 Jan 2026Updated 16:37, 08…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,10648,748,393,4884,105,211,34425,16,15,55549],"class_list":{"0":"post-682912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-live","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-nhs","15":"tag-north-bristol-nhs-trust","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-university-hospitals-bristol-nhs-foundation-trust"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115861236302745194","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}