HEALTH bosses were anticipating the weekend to be an "extremely busy" one for hospital A&E departments.

Speaking on Saturday morning, Bournemouth Hospital boss Tony Spotswood said: "We are seeing more than normal numbers of people coming into our emergency department

"Many more patients are coming to A&E with limb injuries, as a result of falls on the ice, and we anticipate that will continue. We are also seeing an awful lot of acutely unwell patients.

"Yesterday (Friday), there was about 25 per cent more patients than normal who needed to go into our resuscitation area within the emergency department."

Mr Spotswood says it is the cold weather, in particular, that is affecting patients with either respiratory or cardiac problems.

"They either need to be seen by a doctor or admitted," he added.