York District Hospital today resumed non-urgent operations after a significant fall in the number of emergency admissions.

But hospital chiefs said they still faced a very tight situation following the flu outbreak, with the intensive care unit full for most of the weekend.

And emergency admissions could increase again if today's frosty conditions caused a spate of falls and consequent fractures for the elderly, warned general manager Colin Watts.

The hospital cancelled all non-urgent surgery last week when the hospital was swamped with 70 to 80 emergency admissions per day - double the normal winter number - and suffered high levels of sickness among staff.

Such admissions had now fallen to the low 40s, around the normal winter level, said Mr Watts. At the same time, the number of staff suffering from flu-type symptoms had also dropped

And about 35 patients were coming in today for elective, non-urgent surgery. He said it was important for such operations to resume as soon as possible if the hospital was to hit its waiting list targets.

He said that while the intensive care unit had been full for most of the weekend, it had been possible to find beds for patients via the county beds bureau.

Meanwhile, Scarborough Health Trust is continuing to cancel a small proportion of non-urgent operations as emergency admissions remain above normal winter levels because of the outbreak of flu-type symptoms.

Julie Lowe, general manager of acute services, said admissions at Scarborough were about ten per cent higher, with a bigger increase at Bridlington, while the hospital at Malton had remained full throughout.

In Leeds, hospitals' non-urgent operations have been postponed and just seven general beds were available in hospitals across the city.

Hugo Mascie-Taylor, medical director of the Leeds Hospitals NHS Trust said the situation was "a source of great concern, but we are coping".

Nationwide, the Chief Medical Officer, Prof Liam Donaldson, has said that the country is in the grip of a "serious" flu epidemic but he hopes it will peak in the next week.

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