'I've never seen it this bad:' Doncaster nurse's ambulance photo reveals town's Covid-19 crisis

Staff nurse Lucy Richardson posted photos on Facebook of at least a dozen ambulances waiting outside Doncaster Royal Infirmary’s Accident and Emergency department on Sunday night.

She said: “This is how I left shift last night.

“All these ambulances queuing had “yellow” (potential Covid) patients waiting to get into our department and no space to put them.

“Please find alternative services bar our Emergency Department unless it’s an accident or an emergency as we are at crisis point right now.

"I’ve never seen our department this bad in my time working here.”

The post quickly went viral and has been shared more than a thousand times on social media.

It comes as Doncaster hospital chiefs say they have just faced an ‘extremely challenging’ weekend with nearly 200 people across the Trust’s three hospitals currently being treated for coronavirus.

The number of patients being treated at Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust’s three hospitals – Doncaster Royal Infirmary, Worksop’s Bassetlaw Hospital and Mexborough’s Montagu Hospital has more than doubled in a week.

And the figure has rocketed from just three five weeks ago.

Yesterday, health bosses said the current number of cases and patients was worse than the first peak of the pandemic earlier this year and last week health bosses urged people to stay away from Accident and Emergency except for genuine emergencies to ease pressure on the hospital.