Life-saving operations in Bradford are being postponed as the city's intensive care beds are full to bursting.

And doctors at Bradford Royal Infirmary said they will face "serious problems" if the intensive care unit comes under severe pressure over the New Year.

All of the BRI's six special care beds have been full since Christmas Eve and one patient is currently in a theatre recovery room because of the lack of space.

ICU consultant Dr Surinder Cheema said: "This is not normal practice. It is a last resort measure."

Dr Cheema said the unit faced increasing pressure because of winter chest illnesses among the elderly. He said the postponements of operations because of a lack of ICU after-care was "happening fairly regularly.

"There are serious operations for potentially life-threatening conditions being postponed for a number of days."

He said the ICU faced "serious problems" if there were any more than "one or two" patients admitted over the New Year.

While two could be accommodated by moving people to other wards, any extra would have to be transferred to other sites, said Dr Cheema.

"This is not a good situation to be in. These patients are critically ill and we obviously cannot provide the same level of care in an ambulance as in the unit."

He said because nearby hospitals such as Leeds and Sheffield may face the same shortage, patients might have to be moved further afield.

It has been reported that only one ICU bed was free in London today and only 13 available in the whole of the Northern and Yorkshire region - stretching from West, North and East Yorkshire to the Scottish borders.

A spokesman for the Northern and Yorkshire NHS Executive said hospitals used a special "bed bureau" hotline to find their nearest ICU space. He refused to say where the nearest available bed was today.

He added: "Ideally the first port of call would be another hospital within West Yorkshire."

But the movement of patients is a matter of concern for Bradford Community Health Council chairman Barrie Scholfield.

"If beds aren't available obviously it means people will have to travel and there is a risk to life with this."

Dr Cheema said nobody requiring intensive care had been moved out of Bradford during the Christmas period.

A spokesman for Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust said BRI's accident and emergency unit was coming under unnecessary pressure because people were seeking treatment for flu.

Over Christmas and Boxing Day it dealt with 400 people in 24-hours - 11/2 times more than usual.

"People with flu symptoms should get in touch with a local GP who will be on call 24 hours a day throughout the year. Otherwise they can call the NHS Direct helpline on 0845 4647(corr)."

Dr Cheema said ICUs were designed to run at 85 per cent of their capacity to remain cost efficient - but that Bradford was higher than this "virtually all the time."

He said there were no ICU beds available for 25 per of the time but the current nationwide shortage and potential New Year's difficulties raised further problems.

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