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SOUTHAMPTON General Hospital has been on "red alert" most of this year because of lack of beds and staff, the Daily Echo can reveal.

New figures show that in the early months of 2008 additional beds had to be opened to cope with patient demand on 72 out of 121 days.

On five of these days the hospital was put on black alert meaning that even the additional beds were full and in some cases patients could not be transferred from the emergency ward.

Bosses say the situation is not unusual for a hospital the size of the General.

The statistics were obtained by Liberal Democrat public health spokeswoman and Romsey MP Sandra Gidley under the Freedom of Information Act.

She said: "These figures show how ill-equipped Southampton would be to cope with a major incident or an outbreak of flu.

"This is an appalling state of affairs which must end. The people of Southampton deserve a good quality of healthcare that they can rely upon, not a health service living on the edge.

"Local NHS staff must be concerned that, rather than being the exception, a red alert is fast becoming the norm."

The 2008 statistics show alerts from January to April.

In 2007 there were three days when the hospital was put on black alert and 104 days when it was on red. In 2006 the hospital was put on red alert 104 out of 196 days but was not placed on black alert at all.

Southampton General Hospital, which is run by Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, is the only one in the city to deal with emergencies.

Trust medical director William Roche said: "It is not unusual for a large emergency centre like ours to be on red alert because the flow of patients is unpredictable.

"Being on red alert simply means we closely monitor our bed situation to make sure all patients who need to be admitted can be.

"Occasionally, the number of patients arriving causes us to trigger a black alert and in that case we take a series of steps to reduce demand in collaboration with other health organisations."

He added that if a major incident were to occur the hospital would stop admitting patients for routine procedures to cope with the additional pressure.

7:35am Monday 30th June 2008

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