PATIENTS at Colchester Hospital's accident and emergency department endured waits of up to 16 hours amid "challenging pressures" including a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases. 

Bosses running the hospital say more than 700 people visited the stretched department over Sunday and Monday. 

One Colchester dad, whose son spent a night waiting in A&E, said he feared the hospital is crumbling under the pressure of a booming population.

The man, who asked not to be named, said he was "disgusted" at his son's overnight wait.

He said his son had arrived at the urgent treatment centre at around 1.30pm on Sunday and was still waiting for treatment on Monday morning.

He said: "There were 90 plus people waiting overnight.

"The staff are constantly run off their feet, heaven knows how they do it, but the chaos is beyond belief."

He said he feared the building of thousands of new homes in the city and surrounding areas will only increase pressures.

"How on earth this hospital will be able to cope with these numbers is beyond comprehension," he said.

"What would happen if there was a major accident on the A12, or a train incident involving 100s of injuries, it just doesn't bear thinking about."

Neill Moloney, deputy chief executive at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, describe the situation as "challenging".

He said: “On Sunday we saw 380 patients attend A&E and the urgent treatment centre at Colchester Hospital, and 407 on Monday.

“This made for a very challenging time in the department and, regrettably, some people were waiting longer for care and treatment than we would have liked them to.

"The reasons for this are varied and they can change daily, if not hourly."

Mr Moloney added: "Keeping our patients safe is always our focus and we are doing everything we can to respond to the demand for care and treatment.

“We continually assess and prioritise each patient in the urgent treatment centre clinically so those with the most urgent needs are seen first.

“Our communities can be reassured that if there was a major trauma for us to respond to, we would do so appropriately.

“Over the past few days we have started to see a rise in the number of patients with Covid-19, which makes managing beds and flow through the hospital more difficult.

“As with all trusts up and down the country, we also have some patients who are medically fit, but cannot be discharged for complex reasons and overall, there is a regular, high demand for our accident and emergency service.

“We prioritise the people who are in the greatest need of urgent care and are very sick, but this does mean some then have to wait longer - and in some cases this has been more than 12 hours - if they are attending A&E for more minor injuries and conditions.

“We continue to work closely with our partners across the health and social care sector to make sure only those patients who really need to be in hospital are those who are in a hospital bed at the trust.

“That way we can make sure we treat and admit or discharge people from A&E as quickly and safely as possible.”