Following our email earlier this week, we wanted to update you regarding the latest situation at the QEQM Hospital in Margate and thank our partners for the support and understanding shown during this extremely busy period for all our hospitals.

Since declaring a critical incident at the QEQM on Monday, we have also seen the positive impact of people choosing the right services for their needs. By using alternatives such as NHS 111, GPs, pharmacies and urgent treatment centres where appropriate, our local community has helped our teams to focus on caring for the patients who need urgent and emergency hospital treatment the most.

While this support has made a real difference, we want to be clear that we remain in a critical incident and our hospitals continue to experience exceptionally high demand.

We are asking the public to continue supporting our services by:

• Only attending the emergency department for life-threatening illness or injury
• Using NHS 111 (by phone or at 111.nhs.uk) for urgent health advice
• Contacting their GP, local pharmacy or attending an urgent treatment centre for non-emergency care
• Calling 999 in a life-threatening emergency.

Attending emergency departments for non-life-threatening conditions will continue to result in very long waits while we prioritise the sickest patients.

Ongoing actions during the critical incident

As part of our ongoing critical incident response, we are continuing to work closely with partners across the health and care system to:

• Safely discharge patients who no longer require acute hospital care
• Reduce avoidable admissions where it is safe to do so
• Review planned procedures and appointments — we are asking patients to continue to attend as planned unless we contact them
• Manage visiting restrictions on certain wards at QEQM to protect patients during high levels of winter illness

Please continue to support us by sharing information through social media and other channels available to you. We extend our thanks to you and the local community for the way people have responded during this challenging time. We are still extremely busy and under pressure, but the continued support and understanding of the public and our partners really does make a difference. Our teams remain committed to providing safe, compassionate care to everyone who needs us.

You can find the latest information on our website.

Dr Des Holden, Acting Chief Executive Officer

Dr Annette Doherty, Trust Chair