EAST Lancashire hospitals were today under pressure after running out of intensive care beds.

Yesterday there was only one intensive care bed available in the whole of the North West and that was in Stockport

Yvonne Jump, nurse manager at Blackburn Royal Infirmary confirmed that all the hospital's intensive care beds were full.

She said: "At the moment we are holding our own and dealing with all those patients who need intensive care treatment."

Simon Rogers, an intensive care consultant at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital said there had been a shortage of intensive care beds in the North West since the beginning of November and routine operations were being cancelled so that hospitals could cope with the numbers of patients needing intensive care treatment.

Hugh Lamont, press officer for the NHS North West Executive said: "At this time of year the NHS does come under pressure, particularly where intensive care beds are concerned as there are more illnesses and more accidents due to the road conditions.

"At this time of year there are occasions when all the 276 adult intensive care beds in the North West will be full, but there is usually somebody ready to be moved out of intensive care into a high dependency unit or onto a ward. "It is very rare that everybody in all the intensive care beds are so ill that they cannot be moved, and that is when transfers out of the region occur."

Mr Lamont said that this year there were 15 more adult intensive care beds in the North West, at a cost of £300,000 each, than there were last year.

He said: "The other services in the system, including general beds, are not under as much pressure as they were last year, and in general the NHS is very well prepared."

The Government acknowledged the NHS was facing "acute pressure" but insisted staff were coping and patients would get the treatment they needed.

Health minister John Hutton said: "This is a very tight situation. What we have at the moment is a particular period of acute pressure on intensive care beds. We are keeping the situation under the very closest possible review to make sure that patients get the service and treatment they need."

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