Health chiefs have hailed the success of a plan to cope with winter pressures which prevented a crisis in hospital services at Christmas.

Health authority chiefs and bosses at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital at meetings yesterday praised staff for the way they reacted to huge pressures on services caused by an outbreak of flu shortly before the Christmas holidays.

On-call GPs were unable to cope in Bradford, meaning a big increase in admissions at BRI.

Figures just released show numbers were 38 per cent up in casualty at BRI with an increase of more than half in the number of admissions from the accident and emergency department.

In a report, hospitals chief executive David Jackson said many patients made their way to the hospital because they were unable to reach the out-of-hours service.

The intensive care unit was exceptionally busy and often full of people with life-threatening respiratory problems, while the paediatric service experienced a similar explosion in referrals.

He praised hospital and social services staff for their efforts, which meant no elective surgery was cancelled except for patients needing intensive care, allowing the hospital to offer a first class service.

"The winter pressures plan was tested in earnest and proved very effective," he said.

"This was a very difficult time for staff on duty over the Christmas period, many of whom also experienced flu-like symptoms but their response to the unexpected increase in patients was exemplary.

"There are countless examples of members of staff covering for colleagues by working additional hours or on their days off."

Paul Smith, director of planning at Bradford Health Authority, told a second meeting the winter plan worked very well.

No patient had been turned away from hospital, admissions were reasonably quick and discharge arrangements worked smoothly.

Waiting lists continued to be targeted, unlike a number of other hospitals, although problems in the on-call services were being examined.

"We're looking to learn the lessons from this winter for the very difficult workload over the millennium next year," he said.

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