ROUTINE operations are being cancelled at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital as it struggles to cope with the effects of a sickness bug that is rife in the community.

At the moment, 150 out of around 900 beds are blocked by patients suffering from norovirus, and chief executive Tony Spotswood has described the hospital as "chocker to the gunnels".

The trust has declared a "red bed state", which means the demand for spaces at the hospital is greater than the number of beds available.

Mr Spotswood told a meeting of the council's health scrutiny panel: "We had 128 empty beds on Christmas Eve. Four or five days later, we had 175 more admissions than discharges.

"We're suddenly finding it's had a knock-on effect on elective surgery in a fairly big way. The problem is the large number of patients coming in with norovirus."

The hospital's head of operations, Joe Smyth, said: "If you're in a bay of six patients and one or two have norovirus, it affects everybody who's there.

"If you've been admitted from a nursing home, they won't accept you back until the virus is cleared from the area. Once we get people out, we have to clean thoroughly, which can take four to 12 hours."

The virus sets back the recovery from other conditions and leads to delays in rehabilitation and assessments for care packages.

"If we have patients with nothing else wrong with them, we will send them home," said Mr Smyth.

Day case patients, who make up the majority of elective surgery cases, and priority operations such as those on cancer patients, are still taking place, but other procedures may be postponed.

Poole Hospital also has two wards closed, but has not banned visitors or cancelled operations.

Bournemouth and Poole Primary Care Trust has comm-issioned 30 extra beds in the community, that are being fully used.

Mr Smyth admitted: "In 12 to 15 years in the health service, I have never experienced an outbreak like this. This is my first year down here and everybody is telling me this is an extremely unusual year.

"We've had norovirus knocking around since October. There are a number of strains going around so people don't build up an immunity."

The hospital has banned visitors from affected wards and is asking people to stay away if anyone in their household has had sickness and/or diarrhoea in the previous 48 hours.

Sarah Elliott, director of nursing at the PCT, said: "Regular hand washing throughout the day and especially after using the toilet or before preparing food is the most important way for all of us to prevent the spread of infection."

The situation is changing daily and people are advised to ring and check before visiting wards. Details of closed wards at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals can be found on the website, rbch.nhs.uk.