BURY'S hospitals are taking the strain while health bosses throughout the North West struggle to balance their books.

Operations have been cancelled at Fairfield and Bury General because beds are clogged up by patients from outside the borough.

Doctors are forced to admit them because other hospitals claim they are full. But local health bosses believe some hospitals may be closing wards and sending their patients elsewhere to save money.

Mr Phillip Bacon, chief executive of Bury Health Care NHS Trust said: "Every day we are taking phone calls from other hospitals asking if we have any free beds. It is usual to take patients from elsewhere when another hospital is under pressure but it is the regularity with which it is happening at this time of year that is worrying.

"We have always taken the view that if a patient is an emergency we will take them but at the same time, we don't want to disadvantage our own population by having less beds available."

In the last few months doctors have been forced to cancel orthopaedic operations because there were no beds free for recovering patients.

They already have to battle with "bedblocking" where elderly people are stuck in hospital waiting for a place in a care or nursing home.

Mr Bacon added: "It is a 'national' National Health Service where people should be treated according to need regardless of where they live, but we do have a responsibility to look after Bury people. It's a matter of increasing concern and we are looking at this very carefully. It's important that everybody tries to deal with the problems on their own patch although ethically this is a very difficult situation."

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