GPs have been told to stop referring patients for emergency treatment because the hospital system can't cope, writes Victoria Owen.

Family doctors have been accused of sending "huge'' numbers of patients to casualty in the latest crisis to hit Oxford's acute care system.

Hospital managers alerted GPs this week and said there were no beds at any of the county's major centres and the John Radcliffe casualty department was stretched to its limits.

The predicament came as staff met yesterday for the fourth time to discuss how to ease the situation. In a message faxed to surgeries by the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, deputy patient services director Richard Jones said: "The John Radcliffe accident and emergency department is overflowing and we have no empty beds. Please discuss all emergency referrals with the consultant team."

The trust, which is responsible for Oxford's John Radcliffe, Radcliffe Infirmary and Churchill Hospital, as well as The Horton Hospital, Banbury, has 100 beds out of 1,500 closed and it is short of 300 nurses.

Family doctors are questioning why the trust is at crisis point. Dr Oliver Sharpley, a partner at Burford Surgery, said he was at a loss to know where he should send patients needing immediate treatment. He said: "We are in mid-summer and the John Radcliffe is closing its accident and emergency department to patients.

"Where are patients supposed to be referred to?"

Mr Jones said huge amounts of people were being referred to casualty, as well as the casualties brought in by ambulance.

He said: "We just haven't got the capacity. We only need five referrals to come through the front door to fill accident and emergency up.

"A&E is mainly for casualties, but it's GP referrals who are blocking the system. "The fax to GPs meant they could discuss the situation with their patients, who could then decide if they wanted to be referred and wait a long time in A&E, or stay at home and re-think."

Managers had become more optimistic about the growing crisis levels after a new committee was set up to tackle the problem.

But Mr Jones said: "Nothing can be done overnight. We've already met three times and we are meeting again this week.

"It's all about making patients flow through the system quickly and easily. But there are no quick and easy solutions. We need to get new nurses in and we are constantly working on this problem."