PEOPLE are being asked to only use A&E if they have suffered a serious injury, after a surge in demand at the county's emergency departments on New Year's Day.

The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Worcestershire Royal in Worcester, made the plea because this time of year always sees a peak in demand.

The Trust issued this statement on their Facebook page on New Year's Day: “Both our emergency departments at Worcester and Redditch are currently experiencing very high volumes of patients.

“Please only use our emergency departments if it’s life threatening, please use any of the other five minor injury units across the county – the waiting time is less than one hour, you will be seen much quicker."

There are minor injuries units in Tenbury, Malvern, Evesham and Kidderminster. It is likely the wait to be seen will be much shorter in these facilities due to patients not needing emergency care.

Matt Toomer, commented on the trust's Facebook post, said: “A&E is for Accident and Emergency. Not Anything and Everything. These departments are most likely full of people with extremely trivial matters. Unless you have a condition which is a risk to life, don’t go to A&E.”

Ann Overs also commented, saying: “The management of this Trust is an absolute shambles and a disgrace. People’s lives are at stake. I think the more that people complain to the Care Quality Commissioner, the better.”

The trust was unable to provide figures for the number of people who attended A&E on New Year's Day.

A trust spokesman said: “ It is not entirely clear why the A&E was so busy, however it is partly due to the weather and the time of year.”