HEREFORD County Hospital came out of “critical incident” status this morning – but service demand is still high.

Wye Valley NHS Trust said the publicising of the hospital’s plight by the Hereford Times has seen the number of patients attending A&E fall by around 20 a day over the past week.

The trust is looking to resume routine surgery tomorrow. A number of such operations have been cancelled as the hospital coped with the upsurge in A&E attendances and admissions.

Though out of the “critical incident” status it has been working under over the past week, demand for the hospital’s services remains high.

Even the mortuary risked running out of room and needed a temporary back-up unit for a time.

The first indications of patient numbers “easing off” emerged at the weekend.

Over Saturday-Sunday 222 patients attended A&E – 112 on the Saturday and 110 on the Sunday.

Sixty-two patients were admitted on Saturday, 33 from A&E, and 38 on Sunday, 26 from A&E.

The trust still urging patients to consider alternatives to A&E with the hospital staying at critical incident status called a week ago.

Subsequent days saw the hospital under unprecedented pressure over patient numbers.

 An A&E designed to handle no more than 125 patients a day was regularly recording in excess over 150 patients a day over Christmas-New Year.

With bed availability at a maximum of 220, a single day last week saw 57 emergency admissions all described as “extremely sick” and in need of urgent care.

At one point, the pressure was so acute that the hospital had nearly 50 patients in A&E, five waiting on trolleys to be seen, a full Clinical Assessment Unit, a full discharge area, and a single resuscitation bay free.

Many routine operations have had to be cancelled with knock on effects to the trust’s tightened finances.

Figures show that over the last three months of 2014, 85 per cent of people attending A&E were seen within four hours against the national target of  95 per cent.

During the Christmas and New Year period, this figure fell to 74 per cent due to the increase in patients.

When the critical incident call was made on Monday, January 5, 135 patients attended A&E and 57 emergency admissions accepted.

By then, demand levels described as “unceasing and unprecedented” had taken the hospital to a “level 4” alert – the point at which demand exceeds capacity by 30 to 40 per cent.

Daily attendances at A&E topped 164 over Christmas- New Year.

Extra ambulance space has also been found with turnaround a major issue as emergency vehicles wait with patients while blue light calls come in.

At one point last week, seven ambulances - almost the entire fleet available to the county at the time - were waiting outside A&E to admit patients.

As yet, West Midlands Ambulance Service has not been asked to divert incoming patients away from Hereford A&E.