PRESSURE for bed places at Swindon's Great Western Hospital has increased, with hundreds of patients having to be cared for on hospital trolleys.

And one of those kept on a trolley could have gained a place in the Guinness Book of Records after spending 144 hours on one.

Last month, a total of 414 patients had to be cared for on hospital trolleys, one more than in January.

This appears to lend weight to the argument of critics who warned that the £170 million hospital should have been built with more beds.

Divorced father-of-three Herbert Edwards, 62, was admitted to the hospital last month suffering from a suspected heart attack.

He spent six days lying out on a trolley because all of the 541 beds were taken doubling the previous record of Tony Collins, 40, who spent 77 and a half hours on a trolley at Princess Margaret Hospital from February 24 to 27, 2001.

He also spent 60 hours on a trolley at Great Western Hospital when he was struck down with a virus in January.

Mr Edwards, who has recently returned to Swindon after spending 20 years working as a stonemason in the USA, explained: "The doctors and nurses were very good towards me and they seemed to be very apologetic that they could not find me a proper hospital bed. I have to say that I would rather not have spent all that time on a trolley.

"It was pretty uncomfortable because the trolleys are so narrow. They have sides on them to stop you falling off. They are padded, but not the same thing as being in a proper bed. I was pleased to get out of there.

"Someone mentioned to me that I might have broken a record with the length of my stay. It seems that I have doubled it."

The Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust is fitting out a new ward after moving administration staff out of the building to create more room. It is also building a new diagnostic and treatment centre which will have five operating theatres and 72 extra bed spaces, which should be open by December 2004.

Chris Birdsall, spokesman for the trust, said: "We can confirm that Mr Edwards was a patient with us between March 18 and 24.

"During that time he was in an area normally designated for recovering angiogram patients which had been converted into a ward as we were extremely busy at that time.

"Because of space constraints, trolleys rather than the full width beds had to be used on the ward. However, it is important to stress that Mr Edward's bed was in a designated place in a designated ward.

"We must point out that Mr Edwards was not confined to his bed during his stay."