A critical incident has been declared at the NHS trust that runs Nottingham’s two main hospitals, with patients experiencing “significant and unacceptable delays” across services.

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust said, since Christmas, a rise in winter infections and staff sickness had led to “severe and sustained pressure” on its emergency department (ED) and across hospital wards.

The trust said the ED at the Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) was designed to treat 350 patients a day, but the site was “regularly” seeing more than 500 patients.

When declaring the critical incident on Tuesday, hospital officials pleaded with people to only attend the ED in an emergency.

NUH said the demand on its hospital beds had “exceeded all of our forecasted modelling”, with patients having “unacceptable and lengthy waits on corridors”.

Andrew Hall, chief operating officer at NUH, said: “We are experiencing pressures like never before.

“Despite our teams working tirelessly, the demand on our hospitals far exceeds our capacity.

“Declaring a critical incident is not a decision we have taken lightly, but it is necessary to protect patient safety.

“I am deeply sorry for the poor experience this is causing and ask everyone to treat our staff with kindness as they work through this difficult period to deliver the quality of care that you expect.”

As a result of declaring the critical incident, the trust will now rearrange some elective procedures to create capacity for the sickest patients.

All available beds and spaces will be opened and some staff will be redeployed to help alleviate pressures.

They will also be working with NHS and local partners to speed up discharges and provide community support.

Dr Manjeet Shehmar, medical director at NUH, said: “Our teams in our emergency department will continue to see the sickest patients first, which means that if you attend our ED at QMC for conditions that are not an emergency, then you will have an extremely long wait and may be redirected to use other services instead.

“We continue to ask the public to help us by only using ED in an emergency or serious accidents. For all other issues please ensure you have called 111 beforehand to be directed to the most appropriate service.”

Patients who have planned appointments are advised to continue to attend unless they are told otherwise.