Patients needing emergency treatment were forced to wait on trolleys in hospital corridors for two hours and were delayed in ambulances in a county-wide beds crisis.

The crisis struck yesterday for the third time in less than a fortnight. A "Level Three" alert was issued in emergency wards as the number of patients on trolleys reached "overwhelming" levels.

Patients were left waiting in ambulances outside hospitals until space became available. Crews transferred patients on non-emergency wards to hospitals elsewhere to make way for critically ill patients.

At the John Radcliffe, The Horton, Banbury, the Radcliffe Infirmary and the Churchill hospitals, bed capacity has been "exhausted", and it is likely more patients will have to be diverted to hospitals outside the county. It is feared the crisis will deepen still further during the winter.

Tricia Hart, the John Radcliffe's director of nursing, warned in a letter to doctors yesterday that the crisis was "due to continued high levels of admissions, the increasing number of beds closed due to nursing shortages and no further discharges anticipated during the next two hours".

She added: "Across the John Radcliffe, Radcliffe Infirmary, Churchill and Horton we have now exhausted our accessible bed capacity. We have actioned additional beds to be put up across wards and have had to bring in agency staff to assist us.

"As you can imagine, staff at all levels of the trust are reviewing this situation on a regular basis and once again we apologise for having to undertake this action." Aubrey Bell, for Oxfordshire Ambulance Service, said: "It is an exceptionally busy period."

He confirmed that ambulances were delayed outside hospitals but said no emergency 999 calls were affected.

Debbie Pearman, of the Royal College of Nursing at the John Radcliffe, said: "This shows the pressure nurses are under. Morale is very low."

Steve Akers, of the union Unison, said: "We are making the strongest representations possible to senior directors of the trust over our concerns for the health, safety and welfare of our members who are having to nurse patients in these conditions."

He said the alert meant patients would be diverted to Northampton General Hospital, the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading, and the Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon. More than 300 nursing vacancies stand open.

A spokesman for the John Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said the situation was "not unusual" at the moment . He said: "The reason behind it is the difficulties of nursing recruitment. As a result there are bed closures."

Story date: Thursday 09 December

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