A PATIENT has described Southend A&E as a "warzone" as overstretched staff “cover the gaps” while hospital bosses battle a financial black hole.

The pressure on staff is becoming all too noticeable according to one patient, who attended Southend Hospital’s A&E after suffering a heart attack last week.

It comes as the Mid and South Essex Trust battles against a reported £66.6million deficit - higher than the £49.2m target at the end of August.

The trust blames staffing costs for its inability to deliver savings and earlier this year announced a “mutually agreed resignation scheme” and plans to end the use of all but the most essential agency staff.

Campaign group Save Southend NHS, claims staff reductions are “counter productive in the long term”.

The patient, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “Staff were brilliant but they had patients on chairs in the corridor of A&E when it got busy. Dowsett Ward was like a war zone with staff constantly running up and down and shouting to each other. Dowsett is a ‘holding ward’ while patients wait for proper ward beds. CCU was a haven - once I got there. There are just not enough beds and not enough staff.”

The trust hoped to have an £84.6m deficit by the end of the financial year. It would need to deliver savings of £91.5m in order to do that but it is currently £17m off target.

A Save Southend NHS spokesman said: “Reducing agency and locum staffing is a false economy as it just leaves the staff in substantive/regular posts to cover the gaps and work even more shortstaffed. This then results in increasing sickness and increased staff vacancies due to the long-term effects of covering gaps in the services it isn’t sustainable.

“It also costs patients more as a shortstaffed service is not safe or efficient - errors will occur and legal pay outs will then increase.”

Matthew Hopkins, chief executive of Mid and South Essex NHS Trust, said: “We are transforming our ways of working to ensure we’re as efficient and effective as possible, while resolutely focusing on providing safe, quality care for our patients.

“Our staff are provided with a number of wellbeing and support initiatives, and we always ensure there are safe minimum numbers of staff to manage the clinical need.”