THE dreaded flu-bug has put services under pressure in the Craven area over the Christmas and New Year period.

Skipton General Hospital has managed to ward off the feared flu with only a handful of staff reporting in sick.

On the other hand, though, the district nurses have been kept extremely busy with the increase in their workload due to flu-related ailments.

The story is similar at Skipton's Fisher Medical Centre on Coach Street. 'Since two weeks before Christmas at least two members of staff out of a total of 25 have been absent at any one time. This, added to a huge increase in appointments, has put the centre under great strain,' said practice manager Jenny Hutchinson.

She added that services such as the North Yorkshire out-of-hours doctor service had also been inundated with calls.

In South Craven, resources at Steeton's Airedale Hospital were stretched with the rise in flu-related emergency cases.

However, good pre-planning by the hospital has meant that all wards remained opened despite around 20 nursing staff being brought down by the virus.

After some internal re-shuffling, an extra administration and assessment ward was opened at the beginning of December as a pre-emptive measure to cope with the extra workload.

Here, all emergency admissions are assessed to determine whether a patient needs to be admitted or cared for elsewhere. The ward will remain in place until the end of March when its efficiency will be determined.

'Emergency admissions have been running high, particularly among the elderly which is to be expected at this time of year. We have managed to keep all wards running efficiently despite having fewer staff and the hospital being at near capacity,' said Airedale Trust's director of planning, Doug Farrow.

In the meantime, the hospital is remaining on the alert as flu outbreaks and the associated complications continue.

l The flu epidemic has been challenging the work of Craven's refuse collectors -- with around 30 per cent of the workforce off sick.

But council chiefs are proud to report that all refuse collections are currently being taken away on their intended day, despite the fact that 14 dustbin men have been struck down with the scourge of winter.

John Sykes, head of environmental health at the council, said: 'We are cracking on getting the rounds done as usual. The only thing is the collections might be a little later than usual.'

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