NHS FIGURES show the pressure of increased winter demand for healthcare services did not let up during February.

Mid-month, Poole Hospital was 93.5 per cent full and Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals (RBCH), 93.4 per cent full, both well above the recommended safe limit of 85 per cent.

Breaching the occupancy limit can lead to a greater risk of mistakes or patients becoming infected with 'superbugs', says the British Medical Association.

At Poole, 13 patients out of 438 arrivals by ambulance were forced to wait for more than half an hour before being transferred to the emergency department, one longer than an hour. At Bournemouth, it was six out of 460 arrivals, and no patients waited longer than an hour.

Both hospitals were free from norovirus at that time however. The notorious 'winter vomiting bug' places additional strain on hospital as it requires whole wards to be closed.

RBCH has had to close 25 beds due to the disease at its peak this winter, and Poole Hospital 53.