A RECORD surge in patients streaming into A&E is piling "constant pressure" on nurses buckling under the "relentless work rate".

Figures revealed nearly 37,000 people packed into Oxfordshire's emergency departments in the first three months of the year – the highest number of people to ever attend.

The spike led to the trust failing to hit its national target of treating 95 per cent of patients within four hours of arriving, only hitting 82.59 per cent for the quarter.

The Royal College of Nursing's Oxfordshire regional officer Jane Febers told the Oxford Mail yesterday the workload, coupled with not be able to take breaks, was resulting in a rise in staff stress and anxiety.

She said: "Obviously when such huge numbers of patients are entering the doors of A&E the knock on effect to the rest of the hospital is huge.

"There aren’t more staff available to deal with the increased numbers nor is there an increase in beds, so very quickly this squeezes the rest of the system.

"Staff are already telling us the work rate is relentless, nurses aren’t getting breaks and we are seeing more calls relating to stress and anxiety in the workplace.

"It is incredibly hard to work under such constant pressure, and yet nurses do as they are professionals.”

Hospital bosses were also told at a board meeting yesterday stress, anxiety and depression were the main reasons for sickness absences.

Between January and March this year, a record total of 36,990 patients attended the county's emergency departments, run by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

That was a 12 per cent increase on the 33,003 patients who went to A&E who visited during the same period last year.

OUH clinical services director Paul Brennan admitted to the board yesterday the trust was "struggling".

He added: "The performance has been improving week on week - last week we were just over 90 per cent. So we are seeing a great deal of improvement in the performance, but it remains very challenging."

He told the board problems with social and home care meant moving patients out of hospital was still difficult and added: "Most issues have been issues around getting someone home - social care and home support issues.

"To have things like that impacting on a challenge in the system is disappointing."

Although the board heard about the spike in A&E figures and the success of a new unit to keep patients flowing through the system, no rescue package was agreed.

A further report into the crisis will be put before the trust's finance and performance committee in June, which will then be brought to the board for discussion.

Non-executive director Geoffrey Salt said: "The staff are under huge pressure and working so hard and got record numbers going through there. We do need some assurance that when we are under this pressure that quality isn't suffering."

The board heard how 3.5 per cent of staff across the whole the trust were off sick during March – the equivalent of about 367 of its 10,500 employees.

A report to the board said: "While not all mental health related absence is work related, it does account for the greatest number of working days lost per calendar month."

Interim organisational development and workforce director Lynn Lane added: "We do have quite a number of issues in the trust relating to sickness around anxiety and depression - people feeling sometimes stressed in the workplace, other times issues relate to their personal lives.

"We are trying to work with occupational health to put in support for staff more quickly than we have been doing."

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith praised the staff for coping with the surge in patients, but stressed an investigation into the cause of was necessary.

He added: "A close look will need to be taken at the reasons for record numbers, including how far they reflect big pressures also on GPs, and whether there is further action which can be taken to stabilise numbers of people going to A&E whilst making absolutely sure they get the treatment they need."

Healthwatch Oxfordshire's executive director Carol Moore said more should be done to impress upon people A&E is only for people in need of emergency care.

But Ms Moore added: "There are people who are very unwell who are having to wait a long time to see their GP – where can they go?"