A hospital has declared a 'critical incident' amid a rise in Covid patients.
Derriford Hospital in Plymouth has taken the action as staff - who are already overworked - are struggling to fill the rota.
Reports say bosses are expecting more than 60 Covid cases as the facility by next week.
Another ward is already planned, but a knock-on effect for other services is feared.
Jo Beer, chief operating officer at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, said: "The Trust entered an internal critical incident on Monday.
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"This is an internal protocol to focus all departments on immediate de-escalation actions whilst in OPEL4 (the highest level of escalation).
"An example action would be the stepping down of non-urgent meetings to release clinical time back to the wards to focus on discharge-dependent actions.
"The incident was declared due to high bed occupancy and a sustained high level of Emergency Department attendance converting into an above-average level of admission.
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"We are experiencing our highest level of covid occupancy of the third wave and expect this to increase further – as a result we have reconfigured our bed capacity to manage both covid and non-covid capacity but this needs continual review.
"Pressure is also being felt in the region’s wider health and social care system, this presents some impact on the ability to discharge patients into the community care settings when medically fit.
"Our staff are here to help in an emergency, but the public are asked to consider all options when accessing urgent care, such as accessing NHS111 as a first point of call. In order to continue to reduce our covid risk, vaccinations are still available at various locations across Devon and Cornwall.”
3,257 infections were recorded in the South West region on Wednesday, government statistics show.
A total of 35,847 people tested positive across Britain over the same 24-hour period, with 149 deaths.
According to PlymouthLive, there has been 243 Covid-related deaths at Derriford Hospital since the pandemic began.
