An ICB has advised patients to remain safe when working on DIY in the garden over the Easter weekend in a bid to minimise A&E attendances.
North East and North Cumbria ICB issued the guidance ahead of the Easter bank holidays – 7-10 April – to urge its patients to avoid any unnecessary visits to A&E over the holiday weekend.
The ICB’s executive medical officer also advised the public to take care when drinking alcohol over the holiday.
Dr Neil O’Brien, the ICB’s executive medical director, said: ‘Unfortunately, over bank holidays we often see many people turn up at A&E and emergency services with illness, injury, accidents and violence-related incidents due to drinking too much.’
ICBs across England have similarly advised patients to ‘use the right services’ over the long bank holiday weekend to manage demand.
A number of ICBs have urged people in their area to avoid unnecessary visits to A&E, while other have advised them to order prescriptions ahead of time, to reduce need over what they anticipate to be a busy week.
In Surrey Heartlands, joint chief medical officer Professor Andrew Rhodes advised that local health services will ‘remain incredibly busy’, with bank holidays posing ‘additional challenge’ to the system.
He said: ‘We are asking people to plan ahead by getting any repeat prescription requests in early and, thanks to frontline teams who will be working throughout the Easter period, we also want to remind people about the range of services available and which to use when, always remembering that Emergency Departments and 999 are for life-threatening medical emergencies only.’
Similarly, Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB, and Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB advised patients to order prescriptions ahead of the weekend.
Cheshire and Merseyside ICB told patients they expect additional pressure on services following the junior doctor strikes.
