ALL non-emergency surgery has been cancelled at Warrington Hospital following a surge in admissions.

Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has cancelled non-urgent operations up until the week.

NHS England today instructed all hospitals to cancel non-urgent operations and appointments in order to free up hospital staff and beds.

The trust is also reviewing routine operations and outpatient appointments at Halton Hospital – patients will be informed if their procedures are cancelled.

Professor Simon Constable, deputy chief executive and executive medical director at Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Like many acute hospitals, Warrington and Halton hospitals remain under sustained pressure with emergency admissions.

“We made the decision to open up another additional ward yesterday evening and this has been helpful, but on its own it has not had the positive impact that we needed.

“We are working to all the elements of our full capacity protocol as well as taking additional measures where appropriate.

“We have been instructed by NHS England to cancel all non-urgent operations and appointments.

“We have cancelled all non-urgent operations on our Warrington site for the remainder of this week, carefully assessing the risk in each case.

“We are currently reviewing our non-urgent operations and outpatient appointments at Halton Hospital and Cheshire and Merseyside Treatment Centre as well as outpatient appointments at Warrington Hospital.

“We plan to cancel further non-urgent operations and appointments where doing so will release clinical staff and bed capacity to care for our urgent and emergency patients.”