STRUGGLING NHS services in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan have been facing further pressures, after a widespread flu outbreak forced the health board to cut the number of hospital admissions.

Recent weeks have seen a nationwide crisis within the NHS, as bed occupancy rates have risen to in excess of 99 per cent in some areas of the country. Cardiff and Vale University Health Board have not confirmed current occupancy rates for any of their hospitals.

And the health board has now come under increasing strain, after outbreaks of flu and vomiting and diarrhoea forced them to close more of the already low number of available beds to admissions last week.

The health board said on Friday (December 5) that they were hoping to reopen a number of beds later that day, adding in a statement on Monday (December 8) that they had been operating on a "lower escalation level" more frequently over the past week. They did say however that services remained "extremely busy."

Both Llandough Hospital and Barry Community Hospital have seen a significant drop in their number of available beds in recent years. Llandough has seen the average number of free beds on a daily basis fall by more than 17 per cent over the past six years, and Barry, while a much smaller hospital, has also seen a decline of more than 50 per cent in just three.

A spokesman for the health board said last Friday: "Cardiff and Vale University Health Board continues to experience high levels of demand for its urgent and emergency services. Pressures are apparent across the system, both within GP practices and community services as well as within our hospitals. We would like to acknowledge and thank our staff who, once again, have been remarkable in responding to winter pressures.

"We have experienced some difficulties with increased presentations of flu and diarrhoea and vomiting. As a precaution, we have closed a small number of beds to admission but are expecting some of these beds to reopen later today (Friday). We continue to review the position on a daily basis. The number of frail elderly patients presenting has also been a feature of current pressures.

"In response to the current difficulties we have further enhanced senior clinician cover and have additional hospital beds as ‘surge’ capacity."

The health board also said that the high influx of patients needing to be treated for emergencies meant that they would be assessing the viability of pre-planned operations and appointments, but did not say if any cancellations had been made.

In a further statement on Monday afternoon, Steve Curry, chief operating officer at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said that the position remained challenging but added there were indications that services were becoming more resilient towards the end of last week.