EAST Lancashire hospitals are increasingly declaring a state of ‘red alert’, despite introducing a range of measures designed to ease the pressure on beds.

Figures obtained by the Lancashire Telegraph under the Freedom of Information Act show that 55 per cent of the hospital’s time since August has been spent on red alaert - defined by the hospital as “extreme pressure” for beds.

In the final three weeks of February, the Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General Hospital combined were on red alert for 20 out of the 21 days.

The situation has worsened since August when The Telegraph revealed the hospital was spending an average of two-and-a-half days a week on red alert.

Under the system, red signifies “extreme pressure”, amber “high pressure”, yellow “higher than normal” and green normal.

Blackburn’s health watchdog urged support of the East Lancashire Hospitals Trust managers as they continued to introduce measures aimed at improving capacity and patient flow through the system.

A new surgical triage unit, designed to fast-track people needing emergency surgery without increasing waits for other emergency patients, opened at the Royal Blackburn Hospital at the weekend, while a new admissions ward for patients referred by their GPs is set to open within the next three months.

But moving gynaecology services from to Burnley earlier this year in a bid to free up space for emergency patients at the Royal Blackburn has not yet appeared to ease the pressures.

Marie Burnham, chief executive of the hosptials, said: “The continued pressure on beds shows that we were right to take the decisions we did to improve the flow of patients through our hospitals.

“Despite the continued pressures we are experiencing there is growing evidence, particularly in terms of our performance against the four-hour target measured in our Emergency Department and Urgent Care Centres during the last few days, that these actions are producing results for patients.

“Because this increase in demand did not have one specific cause, there is not one specific solution. Working closely with our colleagues in primary care we have introduced a whole package of measures to help sort this out.”

She said these included recruiting more doctors and nurses, opening a GP assessment area in the medical admissions unit and bringing in a GP and district nurse into the emergency department everyday between 1pm and 10pm.

Roy Davies, chairman of Blackburn with Darwen Council’s health scrutiny committee, said the latest figures could show “the darkness before the dawn”.

He said: “The hospital needs the support of everyone, not least the primary care trusts who provide the money, to turn things around as they have promised to do. ”