York District Hospital has cancelled all non-urgent operations as it battles to deal with a massive influx of sick, mostly elderly, patients.

The hospital has been swamped since Christmas Eve by up to 70 or 80 patients a day - three times the normal summer rate of emergency admissions, said hospital general manager Colin Watts.

Many are elderly and suffering from flu-like symptoms or chest infections, but not from a major outbreak of flu itself. Others were coming in with injuries after falls, he said.

The problem had been compounded because the infection had also hit staff. Sickness among staff was running at two to three times the normal rate, leaving most wards one or two staff short of the normal complement.

He said all elective - non-emergency - surgery had been postponed so the hospital could cope with the rush of cases, which was still continuing this afternoon.

But patients waiting for cancer operations or chemotherapy will receive their treatment as scheduled.

Mr Watts said all patients whose operations had been postponed had been contacted and surgery would be re-scheduled as soon as possible. He stressed that patients had been advised beforehand that their ops could be subject to cancellation at this time of year and asked to ring in to check they were going ahead.

"We have had 70 or 80 admissions a day, many people with flu-like symptoms and chest infections," he said. "There has also been a rise in staff sickness.

"It is fairly typical for this time of year really, but elective operations have been postponed until we have more people available."

The decision to cancel operations was taken yesterday and was being reviewed daily.

Operations were cancelled the same way last year at the hospital, and Malcolm Palmer, chief officer of York Community Health Council, spoke of his concern that the hospital had once again been living on a knife-edge this winter and forced to take such steps.

He said the situation might be eased if the Government, instead of imposing priorities on the NHS as a whole, allowed priorities to be set locally.

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