SOUTHEND Hospital did not had enough staff, beds or capacity for new patients for more than half of last year.

The hospital, in Prittlewell Chase, has only been operating on "green alert", which means it has enough capacity in A&E and on wards for 155 days between February 2015 and February this year.

On Monday, March 21, the hospital had its second highest number of patients ever in A&E, while it has declared a critical incident – the highest alert – for the equivalent of nearly a month.

During the busy winter period, the hospital has regularly had to upgrade its status to black and critical alert – the two highest – because of severe capacity issues, a lack of staff to cope with demand, and had to tell people to come to A&E only in genuine emergencies.

Jo Furley, deputy chief operating officer at the hospital, said: “Our higher levels of escalation have resulted from a high number of very unwell patients attending the emergency department at Southend Hospital and daily attendances continuing to be well above average with Monday seeing the second highest number of patients we have ever seen come through the emergency department.

“The trust has a capacity escalation policy that includes an escalation triggers tool used to determine our current escalation status and the actions that are required by each department to manage the current demand on their service, with the aim of reducing the escalation level in a safe and controlled manner.

“We also work closely with our CCGs, community health providers and social services to ensure support services are in place for patients who need them.”

Hospital bosses added they check on capacity three times a day when the hospital is quieter, and five times a day when it is much busier.

Figures from an Echo Freedom of Information request reveal in the past year, the hospital has declared a critical incident for 24 days, while it has been on black alert for 37 days.

It has been on red alert for 68 days, amber for 81 days, and the second lowest, yellow, for 10 days.

James Moyies, who is responsible for health at Southend Council, said: “The whole health system in south Essex is in a critical situation. We don’t have enough staff or money.

“Most people who have had operations cancelled understand the situation and get on with it, but they should not have to and it causes a lot of stress.

“With a lack of money and a lack of resources it will mean that cuts will continue to be made.”

Southend Hospital looks after almost 350,000 people, while Basildon provides healthcare for about 400,000 residents.