Health chiefs have admitted that the closure of Wharfedale Hospital's Accident and Emergency department last year may have contributed to the unprecedented numbers attending Leeds hospitals over the Christmas period.

Now an appeal has been made for former nurses to help staff cope with the crisis.

Christmas and New Year have been the busiest on record for Leeds Infirmary and St James' Hospital - with a record 688 patients seen by casualty staff on Tuesday December 28.

David Johnson, Chief Executive of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "Compared to the same period last year attendances were up by almost 900 to 6,050. We have never experienced anything like this level of demand."

NHS Trust spokesman Paul Schofield said: "Quite clearly, if you don't have an A&E department in Wharfedale those patients will have to come to Leeds. It will have a knock-on effect in terms of the numbers of patients coming to casualty departments in Leeds.

"But the main reason the A&E departments have found it so difficult to cope is because of the number of staff available. I would be very surprised if we hadn't drafted in staff from Wharfedale.''

He added: "I would appeal to anyone who has recently left the nursing profession to help us by returning to work at our hospitals during this extremely difficult time."

He also praised hospital staff who battled to cope with the huge numbers of patients arriving in Leeds and said hospital services had been "stretched to breaking point".

The North Yorkshire Emergency Doctors' Service, which provides an out-of-hours service in Otley, Ilkley and Aireborough, said the rush of calls had started to abate over the weekend.

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