HUNDREDS of patients are being cared for on hospital trolleys after a surge of emergency admissions at Swindon's Great Western Hospital.

Staff are working flat out to care for a wave of priority cases that have taken up beds.

The 559-bed hospital, which cost £170 million to build, has seen a steady increase in the average number of emergency admissions since it opened at the start of the year.

But the reason for this increase is not clear.

Hospital spokesman Chris Birdsall said the hospital had been "extremely busy" and the emergency admissions were taking up bed space.

He said: "We have been extremely busy recently. We had to use the day surgery unit as a ward.

"We are getting a lot of people in who are very sick, suffering from respiratory problems, suspected heart attacks and that sort of thing. We don't like having to put people on trolleys, but we are not going to turn anyone away."

He said an interim unit to be opened soon, in a temporary building adjoining the Great Western Hospital, would offer 26 more beds.

An additional 36 beds will be available by the autumn, when an administration area of the Great Western Hospital becomes a ward.

And further beds will come into use in 2005 when a 128-bed diagnostic and treatment centre is opened.

Mr Birdsall said: "These extra beds will make a huge difference and help reduce the pressure on our staff."

Due to the large influx of emergency patients, some operations have been cancelled to free up theatre for emergency operations. Sunday surgery and day surgery have also been put on hold.

Mr Birdsall explained that when the new £27 million diagnostic and treatment centre opened, it would handle the majority of non-emergency operations, allowing the hospital to concentrate on emergency surgery.

Latest figures show that in March, 20 operations were cancelled on the day of the procedure, an increase of 15 on February's figure.

Pressure on beds in that month, combined with an outbreak of a contagious stomach bug, resulted in the closure of three wards to stop the spread of infection.

In that month, 387 patients were cared for on hospital trolleys.

The shortage of beds was made worse by delays in discharging patients waiting for care funding or assessment, or a suitable room in a care home. Such delays tied up 53 beds in March.

Patients are more likely to die at top performing hospitals, according to figures released by the Dr Foster unit at Imperial College, London.

But Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust, not a top performer, has one of the highest mortality rates in the South West.

Mortality rates at Great Western Hospital collected in April by the Dr Foster organisation showed 105 deaths, in comparison with 102 in 2001. The figure was the third worst of the 18 South West trust.