Southend Hospital has cancelled operations tomorrow after declaring a ‘significant internal incident’.

The Trust has said because of an influx in patients coming into the hospital during the bank holiday weekend, it has had to cancel elective surgery.

Emergency and cancer surgery will still take place, but hospital officials have warned that A&E is under significant pressure, and have said that patients should only attend if they are ‘critically injured or seriously unwell’ and brace themselves for long waits.

Patients whose scheduled surgery was cancelled have been informed by the hospital earlier today. Those who have not heard should still head to the Trust as planned.

Hospital bosses said they are reviewing the ‘significant internal incident’ regularly.

Sue Hardy, chief executive at Southend Hospital, said: "The emergency department is extremely busy and patients are being warned that those attending with 'non-urgent' conditions will wait much longer than usual as patients are prioritised according to how unwell they are.

"We would like to remind anyone who is unsure of the best course of action to always ring NHS 111 for health advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

If you need more than telephone advice when your GP is closed, then you can avoid several hours' wait in the emergency department by telephoning NHS 111 for an appointment with your GP's out-of-hours service which runs from 6.30pm until 8.00am Monday to Friday and all day at weekends and Bank Holidays.

Hospital bosses said the likes of choking, chest pain, blacking out, blood loss and fractures are all considered emergencies, and those with symptoms like this should still visit A&E.

In December, the hospital went into ‘black alert’, due to a huge spike in demand over Christmas.