A&E staff at 'absolute breaking point', union says

A union has warned frontline accident and emergency staff at an NHS trust which declared its fourth critical incident this year are at "absolute breaking point".

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS trust - which runs the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital - announced the critical incident on Tuesday, citing record numbers of patients in its emergency departments. It was then stood down on Wednesday afternoon.

Scott Weightman, of Unison East Midlands, said critical incidents had put staff under "constant pressure".

A spokesperson for the trust said the "safety and wellbeing of our staff, patients and visitors is our first priority".

Previous critical incidents were declared at the trust in January, February, and June.

On Wednesday, the trust confirmed the incident was stood down at 13:30 BST after meeting the necessary criteria.

In an update, it added the number of patients waiting to be assessed in A&E had "dropped significantly".

But Weightman told the BBC staff were "struggling to cope with the constant pressure because of these critical incidents", and called for additional staff with specialist training in emergency care.

He added: "They have raised concerns time and time again with trust bosses and the responses simply haven't been enough to improve things."

Weightman said staff needed more training to look after mental health patients and in how to handle violent incidents.

He also added staff were "ashamed and devastated" with corridor care.

A spokesperson for NUH said the trust was aware "that there is more to do to improve the experience for patients and staff in A&E".

They said the critical incident was declared in response to "the extreme demand on our services".

"It's thanks to the work of our staff and partners that we have now stood the incident down," they added.

"We know that there is more to do to improve the experience for patients and staff in A&E and eliminating corridor care remains a priority for us.

"We have introduced a new general internal medicine ward, we are seeing positive outcomes from a programme of work to reduce length of stay, we are moving more staff into A&E, and we are having open and honest conversations with colleagues, at Board level and with regulators.

"Sadly, a small, but growing number of people still choose to inflict verbal abuse and, in some instances, physical violence upon our staff. This will not be tolerated.

"The safety and wellbeing of our staff, patients and visitors is our first priority.

"We work closely with the police and will not hesitate to take robust action against anyone found abusing and threatening our staff while at work."

On Tuesday, NUH said there were more than than 200 patients in A&E, with more than 100 waiting to be seen.

In September, the trust recorded 2,000 more A&E attendances than it had seen in September 2025.

The trust said there had also been a "particularly high numbers of cardiology patients who require intensive levels of care over prolonged periods of time", which had diverted resource from other areas.

Critical incidents at the trust earlier this year took two days to be stood down in January, and took four days in February.

A further critical incident was declared in June due to "severe and sustained pressure" during the hot weather.

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