PRINCESS Alexandra Hospital (PAH) in Harlow has made an appeal to residents as pressures continue to mount on it’s services.

A spokesperson for the PAH said: “We are experiencing a high demand on our services. Please choose well before attending the Accident and Emergency Department (A and E).

The PAH is at something called Operational Pressure Escalation Level 4 (Opel 4).

To make that a little bit clearer.

Here is the guideline to OPEL 4

Actions at OPEL 3 failed to deliver capacity
No capacity across the Trust
Severe ambulance handover delays
Emergency care pathway compromised
Unable to offload ambulances within 120 minutes
Unexpected reduced staffing numbers in areas where this causes increased pressure on patients.
Severe capacity pressures on intensive care and specialist beds.
Infectious illness, Norovirus, severe weather, and other pressures in Acute Trusts.
Problems reported with support services that cannot be rectified within four hours

We will try and keep you updated each day as to there ‘status” of the PAH.