IT LOOKS like it could be a long winter for the Princess Alexandra Hospital as pressures and demands on health provision intensifies.

Patients were diverted at the weekend as bed capacity was reached.

A “black alert” was put on the centre in Hamstel Road, Harlow, on Saturday (October 15) a situation which NHS England classifies as a serious incident.

This was downgraded to a red alert on Sunday.

PAH has previously experienced a high volume of weekend patients and residents have been advised to only come in a medical emergency.

For non-urgent health enquiries residents are encouraged to call the NHS 111 number for fast advice.