• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Accessibility
  • Terms and settings
  • Site map
NHS County Durham CCG

NHS County Durham CCG

County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group

  • Home
  • About us
  • Our work
  • Get involved
  • Events
  • Documents
  • News
  • Contact Us

Public urged to only visit A&E if ‘absolutely necessary’ as NHS pressures continue

25th June 2021

HEALTH officials are taking urgent action to urge the public to keep A&E free for serious emergencies only.

With pressure mounting on local NHS services, doctors in County Durham are asking the public not to just to turn up to A&E but to think pharmacy, GP and 111 first.

The urgent plea is aimed at reducing the number of inappropriate visits to local A&E departments and raise awareness of alternative services available for people needing urgent medical advice and treatment.

Dr Stewart Findlay, chief officer, NHS County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said: “The message is clear, please do not just go to A&E if it’s not a serious emergency.

“Alternative treatment options are available and finding the right service for you may be quicker and closer to home. A&E is there to deal with genuine life-threatening emergencies only.

“If a medical need is not life threatening visiting a local pharmacy, contacting your GP practice, or calling NHS 111, who can arrange appointments with a GP, pharmacy, or urgent treatment centre, means that you won’t have to spend hours waiting in A&E, and treatment can be given quicker to those really in need of urgent care.”

A&E services in County Durham are available for the following conditions:

  • ​loss of consciousness
  • acute confused state and fits that are not stopping
  • chest pain
  • breathing difficulties
  • severe bleeding that cannot be stopped
  • severe allergic reactions
  • severe burns or scalds
  • stroke
  • major trauma such as a road traffic accident

If people do turn up with minor ailments and don’t need to be there – they will be re-directed to a more appropriate service for their needs.

Anyone concerned about mental health issues is encouraged to contact the local Tees Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) crisis service on freephone number 0800 0516171.

Advice on what to do in a mental health emergency is also available at www.tewv.nhs.uk/crisisadvice.

Sue Jacques, chief executive, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) added: “The support we have seen for the NHS has been amazing over the last year.

“We now need to ask people to keep this up and continue do their bit to protect the NHS and each other”.

Further guidance on when you should go to A&E can be found at:  https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/urgent-and-emergency-care/when-to-go-to-ae/

Primary Sidebar

Search the site

Find events, news, documents and more.

Patient transport in County Durham. Find out more.

Copyright © 2023 · County Durham CCG Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Cookie Consent
We use cookies to optimise our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}