Lincoln County Hospital’s A&E department is in crisis today and the situation is “unsafe and deteriorating”, according to city MP Karen Lee.

The former nurse said she was informed on Tuesday that the longest A&E patient waiting is at 20 hours and the situation is “the worst my contact has seen”.

ULHT acknowledged the “signifiant increase in the number of very poorly patients attending at Lincoln A&E over the past few days” and confirmed action is being taken to resolve the situation.

Norovirus vomiting bug is blamed

Simon Evans, Director of Operations at ULHT, said: “We have seen a significant increase in the number of very poorly patients attending at Lincoln A&E over the past few days, combined with a reduction in our discharges back into the community.

“We are seeing more patients who have winter sickness (norovirus) in particular, and ask relatives and visitors not to visit patients if they have had symptoms in the last 72 hours.

“This has resulted in increased pressure at Lincoln hospital over the last 24 hours particularly, unfortunately resulting in long delays in A&E.

“Actions we are taking to resolve the situation include working with partner health and social care organisations to ensure our patients receive the appropriate care as soon as possible, as well as directing patients who visit our A&E to more appropriate services and cancelling some non-urgent operations.”

Former staff at Lincoln County Hospital previously spoke out about problems of safety and understaffing, which they claim were flagged up but never addressed.

Concerns included staffing levels, as well as newly qualified doctors being left unsupported and overwhelmed by their workload.