Sheffield hospital bosses fear rise in demand in A&E on day of Queen’s funeral

Emergency care will be running as normal on the day of the funeral, but there are concerns that demand could increase because it a bank holiday.

Now officials are urging people not to visit A&E at the Northern General Hospital unless it is a genuine emergency, and stressed as many pre-arranged appointments as possible will still go ahead at the city’s hospitals.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals said in a statement: “Following the announcement that there will be a Bank Holiday on Monday September 19 to mark the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, we can confirm that we will be providing all emergency care as per a normal Bank Holiday.

“Whilst we wish to be respectful of this moment in history and the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, we are very aware that many patients who are due to have operations or appointments on Monday may have been waiting a long time due to the impact of the pandemic. Therefore we are working hard with our teams to determine the level of staffing we will have available so that we can continue with as many appointments and procedures as we are able to on Monday.

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“We will be communicating directly with patients if their appointment or procedure has to be cancelled, but we would ask people to please bear with us for a couple more days while we finalise our plans. There is no need to contact us as we will be in touch with patients direct who are due to come in on Monday.

“We anticipate that demand for emergency services will be higher than usual during the Bank Holiday weekend, so please only attend Accident and Emergency if it is a genuine emergency. Details of alternative urgent care services, including pharmacy opening times, are available at www.sheffieldurgentcare.co.uk.

“Thank you for everyone’s support and patience at this time, it is appreciated by our teams who are working hard to limit the disruption for patients as a result of the extra bank holiday where possible.

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