HEALTH chiefs today moved to assure residents York Hospital was coping - despite a surge of emergency patients during a hectic Christmas week.

The pledge came after it emerged that there were 111 emergency admissions on December 29. This followed an influx of 69 on Bank Holiday Monday and 73 on Tuesday.

Officials admitted hospital staff were "very busy". But they said figures were comparable with the same time last year and denied the Wigginton Road site was on "red alert".

However, councillors today raised concerns that the festive influx could spell bad news for "bedblocking" in future weeks.

Fears about delayed discharges have been fuelled by the debilitating winter flu virus, which temporarily closed two city council care sites that normally take hospital outpatients.

Coun Sue Galloway, Liberal Democrat executive member for health and social services on City of York Council, said bedblocking figures had been high all week.

She said: "I think it would be useful if the council could be told exactly why there were 111 emergency admissions in one day, because that will undoubtedly have an affect on our delayed transfers in the next couple of weeks as people feed through the system."

The busy spell at the hospital meant there were 53 "outlying" patients at one stage - people being treated in wards where, if more space was available, they would not normally be placed.

A spokeswoman for York Hospital confirmed it had been "very busy" over Christmas.

"It's always busy over the Christmas period and we had a high rate of admissions on December 29, but our staff are coping very well."

She said admission rates earlier in the week were "high, but not unusual". She added that the hospital was trying to get patients checked over and discharged as quickly as possible.

"This is not causing any problems with delayed discharges and we have not had to cancel any operations at the moment," she said.

The spokeswoman could not provide a breakdown of what had caused the high number of emergency patients, but she said it was not due to rising violence over the Christmas period.

The winter flu virus, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting, closed Oliver House and White Cross Court, which are post-hospital care units, to new admissions.

Updated: 09:34 Monday, January 03, 2005