Basildon Hospital closed its doors to non-urgent casualties after being swamped with emergencies and running out of beds.
For two hours, "walking wounded" were redirected to Broomfield Hospital at Chelmsford, a round trip of 50 miles.
At one stage, seven ambulances were queueing to drop off patients at A&E, while other patients waited on trolleys to see a doctor.
Basildon Ambulance Service operations manager Paul Leveratt said: "There were seven ambulances here and we did unfortunately have to wait for beds to become available to offload patients."
A spokesperson for Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Trust said: "The hospital was extremely busy. A large number of patients were brought by ambulance to A&E."
Published Friday January 23, 2004
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