HOSPITAL bosses in Worcestershire are working to understand what caused last weekend’s surge of demand at the county’s two A&E departments – the busiest in their history.

More than 780 people visited the two departments at Worcestershire Royal Hospital and Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital on Saturday, September 5 and the following day, far more than would usually be seen at this time of year.

As a result patients were forced to queue in the department’s corridors, with some expressing concerns a return of last winter’s turbulent conditions was on the cards.

Speaking at a meeting of the board of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the two sites as well as Kidderminster Hospital, on Wednesday, September 9, interim chief operating officer Rab McEwan said the level of demand over the weekend “beat the busiest days in the darkest winter”.

“Something happened this weekend and we are trying to find out what it was,” he said.

“There were lots of major cases mixed in with a lot of minor cases. And there was a suggestion we got a large number of stroke patients in.

“We doing work to try and find out what the issues were.

“We understand Worcestershire and Herefordshire were a hotspot from the ambulance service’s point of view.

“It’s hard to know what was driving that demand.”

Interim chief executive Chris Tidman said there were some points last weekend when there were up to 13 ambulances queuing at the Royal’s A&E.

“We had queues in the corridor – we have been very transparent about that,” he said.

“We can have a queue but we don’t want to normalise this.

“I have been saying to staff this is not a return to the darkest days of winter.”

In an effort to stop the turbulent conditions of last winter, which saw patients being treated in A&E corridors and long waits for treatment, from returning, the trust is planning on building an extension to the Royal’s A&E, increasing its size by about 50 per cent, as well as new discharge lounge.

But, although this was initially planned to be complete by the end of this year, it was also announced this week it had been delayed until February 2016.

Speaking at Wednesday’s meeting the trust’s chairman Harry Turner said: “If what happened this weekend happens this winter and we don’t have the capacity we could be in a very bad place.”

“We cannot go through another winter like this.”

Although people should always call 999 or go to A&E in an emergency, there are a number of alternatives for non-urgent situations.

The Minor Injury Units in Malvern, Evesham, Kidderminster, Tenbury and Bromsgrove are also able to deal with conditions such as broken bones, cuts, wounds and more burns.

The unit in Kidderminster is open 24 hours a day and waiting times at all five are generally significantly shorter than at A&E.

The NHS 111 phone line is also available for free 24 hours a day.