ACCIDENT and emergency bosses say they have “got a grip” on the huge pressures still facing their departments.

We reported that A&E departments at Worcestershire Royal and Redditch Alexandra hospitals were stepped up to the highest level of escalation two weeks ago as continued cold weather, increased emergency admissions and high levels of severely ill patients took their toll.

Stewart Messer, chief operating officer of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, explained further the extent of the situation Worcester’s A&E had been facing.

“On a daily basis we would on average have about 160 attendances at Worcester, of which about 60 would be admitted. But over the last few weeks that admittance figure has been more like 75 every day.

" When you have those higher numbers for consecutive days it very quickly stacks up and causes pressures. What we are experiencing at the moment is unprecedented and it has got to be a result of the weather.”

Other local heath trusts and commissioners sprung into action last week to help move patients through the system and free up vital beds in accident and emergency and acute wards.

Mr Messer said that had been effective, with the level of escalation stepped down and a repeat of the state of alarm not witnessed at the start of this week, despite another extremely busy weekend.

“I would like to reassure people that we have got control and got a grip of the situation,” he said.

The ongoing pressures on Worcestershire’s accident and emergency departments are reflected in the trust’s latest figures.

They show that during February, only 80.5 per cent of accident and emergency patients at Worcester were seen, treated, discharged, admitted or transferred within four hours, with Redditch faring little better at 81.7 per cent. The national target is 95 per cent.

However, Mr Messer said the departments were among the best in the region against targets for handing over patients from ambulance crews to A&E staff, at a time when ambulance service chiefs say they are under pressure by the practice of “stacking” patients in ambulances outside hospitals.

He said the trust is meeting a target of all patients starting to receive treatment within an hour of arriving at A&E, with a year-to-date figure of 48 minutes and even February’s figure comfortably beating the requirement at 50 minutes.

“Although we are not meeting that four-hour target, we are meeting an awful lot of other quality and safety targets,” he said. “Patient safety and quality of care are our primary concerns.”