JUNIOR medical staff have been pulled away from their training in order to support a busy A&E department at the hospital.

Emergency medical staff have also been asked to reduce their non-clinical work, in order to keep up with patient demand.

In light of this Salisbury District Hospital has warned that the Accident and Emergency service is "very busy" and patients should only attend in a serious or "life-threatening" condition.

READ MORE: Salisbury Hospital warns against patients attending A&E

Jane Dickinson, divisional director of medicine and deputy chief operating officer, described the A&E department as a "thermometer for the rest of the hospital", adding: "A busy A&E usually indicates that the rest of the hospital is busy.

"In recent days we have had to ask senior emergency department medical staff to reduce their non-clinical work and pull some junior staff away from training and education in order to support the team.

"The more patients we have through the front door of A&E adds pressure across the hospital as beds may be needed for those admitted via A&E."

Jane told the Journal that one way the team copes with the pressures of A&E is ensuring patients are discharged in "a timely and efficient manner".

"This is why we ask family, friends and carers to work with us when a patient is ready to be discharged to reduce delays," she added.

"Discharges can be complicated, especially when a person needs ongoing care, but it makes a real difference when everyone pulls together to get the patient home."

Speaking about the impact of Covid-19 on the hospital, Jane said: "A&E remained open throughout the previous waves of the Covid-19 pandemic and will remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"The team continues to work with altered practices that are designed to keep staff and patients safe.

"This does mean some patients may have to wait longer as priority cases are attended to first. Across the hospital many of the changes made to respond to Covid-19 continue to be in place and this has changed the way staff work, but these are now becoming a new normal."

The hospital has requested that members of the public who feel unwell should first contact their GP or pharmacist, call 111, visit the walk-in service in the city centre or visit 111.nhs.uk

This is so the A&E department can treat the most serious and life-threatening cases.

"The emergency department can not treat everyone for every condition and after an assessment will redirect some patients to alternative services such as a dentist, an optician or their GP," Jane added.

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