SOUTHEND Hospital cancelled non-emergency operations and called on off-duty staff to report for work amid a growing beds crisis.

The hospital made the announcement amid a growing crisis in the NHS with A&E waiting times at their worst levels in a decade.

Bosses at Southend cancelled the operations after seeing a surge in A&E patients, with up to 100 a day now being admitted from there – double the usual numbers.

The hospital, along with Basildon, also missed its A&E waiting time targets for the four weeks up to December 28, with Southend seeing just 85.5 per cent of patients within four hours and Basildon seeing 90.2 per cent – both below the Government target of 95 per cent.

Jon Findlay, chief operating officer at Southend Hospital, said: “We are extremely sorry we have had to postpone some patients’ operations this week.

“The hospital has been incredibly busy and in these circumstances we have to prioritise the most urgent patients.

“Cancelling non-emergency operations will help us to free up beds as well as doctors, nurses and other staff who have been redeployed to areas of the hospital that are experiencing the greatest challenges.

“We do appreciate it is very inconvenient for appointments and operations to be postponed.

I would like to apologise to any patient who has been affected by these circumstances and thank everybody for their understanding and support in ensuring we can continue to provide the best quality of care to those patients with the greatest need.”

The hospital would expect to admit 50 people from A&E a day, but this has doubled due to a “higher than usual number of acutely-ill patients requiring hospital beds”.

The hospital is said to have texted its “bank” staff – those registered as available for temporary work – to come in, but one worker, who asked not to be named, said some ancillary staff, such as care assistants and porters were not willing to help after being refused a pay rise given to other A&E staff as a means of retaining them.

He said: “A&E is in chaos and it’s a management problem.

Morale is dire. Lots of staff have had texts asking them to come in, but most of them won’t after the way they have been treated.”

Last week, both Southend and Basildon Hospitals issued black alerts.

These are declared when A&E departments are overcrowded and advise people to stay away unless they are severely ill, or critically injured, because of a lack of available beds.

Basildon Hospital said it had seen a massive increase in patients year on year, with 8,561 patients seen last month, compared to 7,751 in December 2013.

A spokesman for the hospital said: “It has been an incredibly challenging fewweeks, not just at Basildon Hospital, but across the whole of the NHS.

“Our talented and committed staff are coping well with the demand.

“As always, we ask that people who don’t need emergency treatment should use other services such as their GP, pharmacist or NHS 111, to avoid a long wait and allow our doctors and nurses to treat seriously unwell or injured patients more quickly.”