NHS bosses discussed plans to open a private ward at Colchester General Hospital, while colleagues battled to find space for emergency admissions.

The board of Essex Rivers Healthcare NHS Trust heard how Colchester General Hospital's emergency admissions unit was forced to close on Friday, with the accident and emergency waiting room full to bursting point.

Medical director Marion Wood said other wards were unable to help ease the crisis.

"Colleagues were saying, almost without exception, that there were patients in beds who could not be discharged," she said.

Later in the board's meeting yesterday, proposals were mooted to open a ward for private patients.

In a reference to the cash crisis engulfing primary care trusts (PCTs), chief operating officer Andrew McClaughlin said: "We need to look at funding streams other than the empty well of the PCTs."

It was admitted that, with "every bed in the place" full-up yesterday, plans to find room for a private ward seemed optimistic.