Patients have had to wait more than nine hours for emergency treatment at Chelmsford's Broomfield Hospital, it has been revealed.

And health bosses warned the situation was likely to get worse when the New Year festivities began.

A total of 161 people were taken to the accident and emergency department at Broomfield Hospital on Sunday.

Out of those only 51 patients were admitted to hospital as emergency cases.

Russell Griffiths, communications manager for Mid-Essex Hospitals Services NHS Trust, said "at least one patient" who had been clinically assessed as non-urgent had to wait more than nine hours for treatment over the Christmas holidays.

He stressed any patient suffering from life-threatening conditions or injuries were seen immediately, He said: "All patients who required life-saving or urgent treatment were treated promptly," he said.

He said there were no special reason behind the delays: "The workload is typical for the time of year and through the team effort of all hospital staff, district nurses and local GPs, patients have received the care they need in an appropriate and timely manner."

The hospital has been on yellow alert to make sure there are enough beds at Broomfield to meet the needs of patients being admitted as emergencies.

This means patients who are fit enough are transferred to other hospitals run by the Trust, such as the William Julien Courtauld and St Michael's Hospitals in Braintree and St Peter's Hospital in Maldon.

Mr Griffiths said there were always 12 beds available.

He added: "It is expected high demand will continue and possibly increase over the New Year holiday period.

"It is likely, therefore, the waiting time for non-urgent patients who come to A and E will continue to be lengthy," he admitted.

The situation is still not as bad as last year when the severe cold snap put A and E staff under a great deal of strain and led to Mid Essex Hospitals introducing new measures to cope with the situation.

The warmer temperatures this year meant less people have so far arrived as emergency cases.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.