Southmead hospital is on the highest state of alert and failing targets to see emergency patients within four hours as winter pressures mount, health chiefs have revealed.

And the huge spike in demand at A&Es is having a knock-on effect for people needing planned treatment, with 19 residents waiting more than 52 weeks, according to the latest figures.

Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) clinical commissioning group chief executive Julia Ross said patient safety was not at risk despite the situation.

She said that unlike last year, hospital trusts struggled to discharge patients before Christmas to free up beds.

She told a CCG governing body meeting: “Over Christmas and new year, the urgent care system across BNSSG was enormously pressured.

“We are not alone. This is the case across the country.

“I’m really pleased to say that as a system we’ve managed it better than we have ever done before, although that is not to say there is not much more to do.

“The system remains very significantly challenged.

“Last year we managed to discharge quite a lot of patients before Christmas so we had spare bed capacity over Christmas and new year.

“That was not the case this year and that exacerbated the consistent challenge we have that demand is growing at a really significant rate for A&E.”

Ms Ross said the hospitals, including the BRI, Southmead and Weston General Hospital, were in “system Opel four”, which means they are under extreme pressure and on the highest state of alert.

“While it’s terribly challenging and people are experiencing things we would not choose for them to be experiencing, we are as confident as we can be in the safety in the system so people are not experiencing harm,” she said.

“But we continue to work together to try to relieve the pressure on the system to get us back on an even keel as soon as we can.

“Everyone is working hard and well together but the reality is we’ve got continuing and growing demand for urgent care activity.”

CCG commissioning deputy director Claire Thompson told the meeting on Tuesday, January 7: “While our ability to see patients within four hours has been compromised, we are outperforming the national average.

“The area where we made a commitment to reduce elected waiting times was for 52-week waits and we have made progress this year but we are not delivering what we wanted to, given the urgent-care pressures being experienced.”

A report to the governing body showed the situation was worsening overall even before the festive period.

The latest figures, for October, revealed about one in five emergency patients at the area’s A&Es were not seen within four hours, although this was better than the national average of one in four patients.

An average of 54 people a day are visiting A&E in the region, a rise of 6.3 per cent on last year.

North Bristol Trust, which runs Southmead, saw 80 per cent of patients within four hours.

At Bristol Royal Infirmary the figure was 72 per cent, compared with 90.3 per cent at the children’s hospital, with both sites run by University Hospitals Bristol Trust. 

Weston Area Health Trust saw 74.7 per cent of urgent cases within four hours.

All three trusts failed their trajectory targets.

The report said the emergency departments were “under significant pressure due to high levels of demand” with all three operating in Opel four for much of November but that none were reporting “any related patient safety concerns”.

The CCG is urging patients to choose the right NHS service and use A&E only for serious or life-threatening conditions to help alleviate rising demand on services.

Local GP practices, minor injuries units, pharmacies and NHS 111 are all available to help with non-emergency conditions.

More information on services is available at bnssgccg.nhs.uk