PRESS reporter Alex Ross is granted a behind the scenes look at York Hospital as staff struggle amid a severe flu outbreak.

It has been a long and tiring winter for everyone at York Hospital.

A severe outbreak of flu has stretched staff and resources to the limit and doctors and nurses in the emergency department have tried their best to deal with a bed shortage and ambulances queuing outside.

In Christmas week, 201 ambulances were delayed an hour or longer as they waited to handover at the hospital, which is run by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The Press was invited into the hospital to speak to those on the frontline about their challenging winter and to see how major departments are coping after a difficult start to 2018.

David Thomas, directorate manager for emergency medicine, is waiting at the front doors of York Hospital's Emergency Department to take us round.

The building is split into two sections and we begin by following the path the 'walking wounded' take.

This consists of an out of hours GP, an outpatient orthopaedic clinic and 24/7 minor injury unit.

"This place gets really busy and we get two spikes of activity," Mr Thomas said.

"There's mid-afternoon when we get people who've been referred here by their GP and late evening.

"It's quite demanding for the team to keep on top of everything.

"The message has gone out for people not to come to A&E unless they really need to."

When we arrive on Tuesday morning there is a two hour wait to be seen and around 15 people are waiting patiently.

Next door to the minor injury unit is A&E.

Patients who arrive in an ambulance are taken into this part of the hospital and its consultation rooms are already full of mainly elderly patients.

Dr Gary Kitching, a consultant in emergency medicine, explains the handover time is eight minutes - well below the 15 minute national standard.

He said: "We have seven cubicles and historically that used to be the right number, but given the pressures we have had over the last several months, and more activity over Christmas and New Year, all the cubicles have been full and they had to go into overflow areas.

"At times that overflow hasn't been big enough."

Flu season has undoubtedly taken its toll, but there is optimism they are through the worst of it.

Doctors are now reflecting on what can be done to ease pressure on hardworking staff next year.

"At this point in time it is manageable and I would like to say we have seen the back of the flu," added Dr Kitching.

"For shifts finishing at 11.30pm, people are often worked beyond midnight to keep some movement in the hospital.

"The flu has been a significant factor in the workload of the department, but that shouldn't undermine everything else we have had to manage."

Dr Kitching says improvements to social care are needed and points out a bigger emergency department is required to cater for a 20 per cent rise in the number of patients since the department was built in 1999.

Lucy White, the nurse in charge of 10 nurses and four health care assistants in A&E, labels the winter period as "relentless".

The tour ends upstairs on Acute Medical Ward (AMU) - four 30 bed wards - where patients are assessed for 48 hours after leaving A&E.

Mel Bootland, the ward's senior nurse, has just closed a bay of five beds after a flu outbreak, but believes things are quieting down, for this winter at least.

"There has been a massive influx of patients heading through the doors and elderly patients that have been unwell," she said.

"When a bay shuts we have to get the curtains changed and the bay cleaned.

"It feels like there's a delay getting the patients in as well, but there's nothing I can do.

"We have had to contend with a lot of concerns, but I think everyone would agree it gets worse year after year."