PRESSURE on hospital beds in Worcestershire has eased but health chiefs remain "vigilant" after a vomiting bug swept across the nation.

The number of patients seeking treatment in A&E departments or admission via medical assessment units has lessened over the past two days, says the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Chief executive John Rostill said he was hopeful that the sustained pressure on hospitals in Worcester and Redditch had now reached its peak.

He added: "With hindsight our decision taken last week to cancel routine non urgent inpatient surgery until today, was absolutely right.

"We have been able to concentrate all our efforts and attention on treating as quickly as possible patients who have presented as emergencies. As I explained last week many of these are elderly, frail people with respiratory or chest conditions.

"Across the trust more than 100 patients who came in as medical emergencies are now occupying surgical beds. Obviously in normal circumstances we would have had had these beds for our non urgent surgical patients.

"Over the weekend we have been able to meet all clinical demands and on Sunday saw, treated, admitted or discharged 98 per cent of patients attending our hospitals within four hours. This is the first time this has been achieved for over four weeks."

We reported on Saturday's Worcester News how 45 patients had their operations cancelled because of overcrowding on the wards.

The nationwide sweep of a violent vomiting bug was described as a "complicating factor" but not a cause of the problem by chief executive Mr Rostill.

The overcrowding was also attributed to elderly and vulnerable patients with respiratory problems.