THE crisis at Southampton hospitals has eased but remains serious, the Daily Echo can reveal. Medical staff are now at red alert after the situation has been downgraded from a “internal major incident”.

This black alert – the highest warning level – forced Southampton General and Princess Anne hospitals to close their doors to all non life-threatening illnesses or injuries from Tuesday until midday yesterday.

A Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust spokesman praised the Daily Echo for its part in taking the pressure off the life savings facilities which had had been admitting more than 200 people a day as emergencies.

He said: “The Daily Echo helped us get the message out that where possible people should use primary care whether they go to their GP, an NHS walk-in centre or a pharmacy.

Very serious “All hospital staff have worked had to bring the level of alert down and but we are still stretched. Early yesterday we fell to the low end of a black alert and then about midday it dropped to red alert – this is still a very serious level.”

The trust defines a red alert as “escalating pressure in one or more part of the system continuing to increase” just one down from black alert which is “contingency measures are exhausted and pressures are not sustainable.”

Trust bosses blamed the problems on an increased number of emergency referrals. They claimed more older people were being admitted with conditions related to the prolonged period of cold weather and people slipping on ice.

When the trust declared a black alert, an internal memo, leaked to the Daily Echo, showed staff were being told to check with clinicians before admitting patients. People awaiting non-emergency operations were told that these may have to be cancelled while nurses feared that the need to free up beds as quickly as possible meant some patients were leaving with formal care plans being fully in place.