Guy’s and St Thomas’ has warned that non-urgent appointments will be cancelled so that it can cope with an increased coronavirus demand.
The Trust is taking steps to scale back some of its non-urgent elective activity, following in similar footsteps to King’s College Hospital.
These are pre-arranged cases, but not transfers from other hospitals or emergency admissions.
King’s today stopped all elective inpatient activity “until further notice”, save for those dealing with life-threatening conditions such as cancer, in a bid to manage the extra strain caused by coronavirus cases.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ said it had begun identifying ways of managing demand within each of its services “so we can make sure we are providing care to those who need it most.”
This may include cancelled appointments, or the use of phone and video appointments rather than face-to-face interactions.
“In order to help us manage the increasing demand on our services caused by coronavirus, we are starting to scale back some of our non-urgent elective activity,” a Trust spokesperson told the News.
“Our clinical teams are currently working hard to identify how to best manage this within each service so we can make sure that we are still providing care to those who need it most.
“For some patients, this may involve cancelling or rearranging their appointments. For others, it may be that we can continue their care through the use of telephone or video appointments.”
King’s, which is the other Trust providing major hospitals in Southwark, has also warned that its day cases will be reviewed on a day-to-day basis, paving the way for possible cancellations.
Outpatient appointments will be handled over the phone or video as long as it is safe to do so, said the hospital.