WYCOMBE Hospital closed its Accident and Emergency department overnight on Monday and family doctors were told to send sick patients elsewhere or help them to remain at home for a few hours.

The hospital continued to deal with patients brought in as the result of 999 calls, including one road accident, and where doctors said patients had to come in, they were accepted as well.

The hospital's A and E department last closed like this in November, though the reason then was a shortage of nursing staff on the wards.

This time it was the pressure of cases and a question of patient safety, said David Griffiths, the director of hospital services for the South Bucks NHS Trust.

He said numbers coming into the hospital through A and E built up steadily through Monday and by 7pm there were 29 patients in the department who needed admission to the hospital including 12 people on beds in the corridor because there was no space left in the cubicles.

He said that normally with 20 patients processing is difficult.

Mr Griffiths said at this stage it was decided to close the department and inform the emergency doctor service of the fact. Other hospitals were under similar pressure, he said.

Mr Griffiths explained that Mondays were usually busy days and this time things were made worse because the weekend had also been busy.

All beds were full and some non-urgent operations had to be postponed.

He added that by Tuesday morning the situation had eased and the department reopened.