The incident was called just after 4pm on Tuesday 4 November with 24 ambulances waiting outside the ED and large numbers of people in the department.  

Andrew Hall, chief operating officer at NUH, said: ‘Our staff are working tirelessly to care for patients, but the pressure on our services is causing very long waits and this is causing overcrowding in our ED. 

‘We know how frustrating this will be to people waiting in the department. Our staff are working as hard as they possibly can to get to them as soon as possible. Unfortunately, some of our colleagues have experienced abuse from people waiting to be treated and we ask that they are treated with kindness and respect.'

The trust said technical issues with the roll-out of a new EPR at the weekend had hampered its ability to manage current levels of pressure.

A spokesperson told HM it remained in critical incident mode this morning.

A critical incident at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust was stood down yesterday after being declared on Thursday, 30 October due to exceptionally high demand due to a combination of ongoing pressures, including a high number of patients in hospital beds who no longer require hospital care and an increase in seasonal illness. Two wards were closed at Bristol Royal Infirmary during the incident due to fire safety concerns.