'Every hospital corridor I saw had people in beds'

""They were amazing... everybody was so professional and they really did put me at ease.""

""I was quite resistant to going because I knew how busy it was going to be but they said that was my best course of action," she said. "I was told that I had to go and not risk losing my finger, so I was apprehensive.""

""It was so busy in [A&E], very loud, very chaotic... as I was moved around the hospital to different departments, every corridor had people in beds and I'd say the majority of those were the elderly. "It was really quite upsetting at times when I was waiting for an X-ray, I could hear people calling out in the corridor. "You could see the nurses and the staff running around trying to get to everybody as quickly as possible, machines beeping from everywhere. "I felt guilty for being there, I didn't want to take up a space unless I absolutely had to but it was quite"

Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre emergency department experienced significant overcrowding during a critical incident, regularly treating over 500 patients despite being designed for 350. A patient who went to A&E after a dog bite described loud, chaotic scenes with people in beds lining corridors, many of them elderly, and staff rushing between patients amid constant alarm beeps. The patient was seen relatively quickly because of bleeding and received praise for the professionalism and calming manner of staff. The hospital trust said the situation was improving but that both hospitals remained full.

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