Hospital tackles surge in numbers

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Derby's new hospital is being forced to cancel operations and consider using beds in its former site across the city after a surge in patient numbers.

Staff at the Royal Derby attribute demand to earlier than normal winter pressure and partly to swine flu.Thirty operations have been cancelled, 16 extra beds made available and other wards put on standby.

There are also plans to open up intermediate care beds at the former London Road community hospital site.Julie Acred, chief executive of Derby Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Every year the system comes under pressure, it has been aggravated this year by swine flu.

"It's not a pandemic curve perhaps like we've seen in earlier pandemics."But certainly the numbers are growing steadily and it's additional patients in the system we wouldn't have expected and I think the service is coping remarkably well."

Source: BBC News