ROUTINE surgical operations at Great Western Hospital were postponed yesterday for a fourth consecutive day.

The move came as staff continued to deal with the backlog of an exceptionally busy weekend in the hospital’s A&E department.

Over the two days 667 patients came to the department, with 245 being admitted for hospital treatment.

A GWH NHS Foundation Trust spokesman said: “Patient safety and quality of care is our absolute priority and we have therefore made the decision to again postpone routine inpatient operations planned for today.

“The hospital remains extremely busy and we are prioritising patients needing urgent treatment such as cancer, emergency and trauma patients. Day surgery will go ahead as planned.

“Any patient whose operation has been postponed will be given another date at the earliest opportunity, usually within the next few weeks. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. A big thank you to our dedicated staff who continue to work incredibly hard through what is a very challenging time.”

Earlier this week figures showed that GWH was not meeting a national benchmark for seeing patients in A&E.

NHS England aims for 95 per cent of patients going to A&E to be seen within four hours, but GWH is currently dealing with only 83.4 per cent in that time.

Nationally, 92.6 per cent of patients get seen within the period, the worst level in more than a decade.

Dr Guy Rooney, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s medical director, said: “We treat patients in order of clinical need and our priority is to provide safe and high quality care to each patient.

“Therefore, with the current high demand less urgent patients may be waiting longer than normal.

“We are, of course, doing everything we can to treat patients in a timely manner.

“However, we are caring for more and more people, often elderly and frail with multiple and very complex health needs, which only gets worse as it gets colder.”

Dr Rooney said calling for an ambulance was not always the best option for meeting healthcare needs and reminded people to consider alternatives such as visiting a GP or pharmacist.

To help provide support, South Western Ambulance Service put up a treatment tent in the hospital’s car park on Monday afternoon. It insisted this was a precautionary measure and was not used before it was removed on Tuesday.

For current information on routine inpatient operations at GWH, call 01793 604020 or visit www.gwh.nhs.uk.