HOSPITAL bosses believe a £260,000 package of contingency plans is helping to prevent a winter beds crisis.

Staff at Blackburn Royal Infirmary and Queen's Park Hospital are managing to cope with a recent surge in admissions.

They say contingency plans put in place to reduce the burden created by the influx of patients have so far been a success.

The measures include the opening of an extra ward at Queen's Park which is being used for medical admissions. Last year the hospitals were forced to postpone a series of operations after a huge influx of medical admissions.

John Dell, operations director of the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust, said: "The volume of patients has not gone down too much.

"But we had plans in place to cope and the extra beds have helped us.

"Obviously the milder weather has helped and we have not yet had a cold snap.

"We had all sorts of problems last year and the pressure is still on us."

Other ongoing contingency plans include:

The opening of 16 additional surgical beds at weekends until March.

Two extra beds on the medical assessment unit at the infirmary.

A seven-bed bay on a day case ward is being used as an overnight stand-by until February.

The opening of four paediatric admission beds on a 24 hour/seven day basis during the same period.

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