A HOSPITAL has been taken off high alert after having to cancel operations due to a high volume of patients.

Southend Hospital called off a number of elective surgery appointments yesterday after the Accident and Emergency (A&E) was inundated with acutely ill patients and emergency admissions.

The operations had been scheduled in advance because they were not an emergency.

Hospital governor Dr Alan Crystall believed the problems had been caused by too many people visiting A&E with problems that could be treated by a doctor, while an ageing population had also placed an increased burden on health services.

He said: “The solution is to try and get a lot of people who go to A&E to see their doctors instead.

“The increase in patient numbers is just the luck of the draw. We are the best performing of the five acute hospitals in Essex and we get days where we have spikes, but they average out over the year. “It is unfortunate, but we always cope.”

Yesterday, the hospital’s chief executive Sue Hardy said: "The hospital is currently extremely busy dealing both with the high number of patients coming through our doors and the number of very ill patients who need to be admitted to hospital.

"The emergency department is very busy and we have to warn patients that those attending with 'non-urgent' conditions will wait much longer than usual as patients are prioritised according to how unwell they are.”