The number of patients waiting to be admitted to hospital in South Essex has risen by more than 600 in a month.

There were 17,803 people waiting to go into NHS hospitals in the South Essex Health Authority area according to figures released for April, a rise of 658 on the March figure.

The authority claims the rise was down to a lack of members of staff able to do overtime after working extra hours during March.

Secretary of State for Health, Frank Dobson, said the rises throughout the Eastern Region were due to hard-working staff taking much-needed time off following a difficult and busy winter.

He said: "After those three months of uninterrupted hard work many of the staff involved took a well earned break at Easter, and quite right too."

But he said the NHS was not going to allow waiting lists to spiral out of control.

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