THE boss at Colchester Hospital has warned pressures on its Accident and Emergency department have left it "at a point of crisis".

Hospital trust chief executive Nick Hulme warned it and other health leaders needed to do "something different" to cope with demand and announced he will hold a summit.

Speaking at a meeting of the trust's directors, Mr Hulme said: "I have decided to call a summit of all leaders across north Essex to come together to look at ways of delivering emergency care."

Mr Hulme said the trust, which runs Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals, was regularly experiencing as many as 600 patients a day who required front line emergency care.

"That is way beyond what we would expect from any area."

Mr Hulme pointed to added pressures from many patients from the Tendring area, which has a higher than normal proportion of elderly people.

This also results in the hospital having a higher than average death rate.

"We are now at a point of crisis, we need to do something different," he added.

The meeting also heard GP practices had experienced "substantial growth" in patient numbers but had problems in recruiting doctors.

Neill Moloney, the trust's deputy chief executive, said performance at A&E had improved since the winter time when it tends to be a lot busier due to illness and slips and falls.

But he added there was still a "significant level of concern about growth" which was "out of line" with what the trust had planned for.

National targets are for 95 per cent of patients at A&E to be seen within four hours.

Last month at Colchester the percentage was 91.44 per cent but an improvement upon February.

Earlier this week A&E patients arriving at Colchester Hospital were warned they faced a five hour wait to see a doctor.

The unprecedented spring time surge on Tuesday saw 297 people attend.