A boss at the region's largest hospital says he hopes it will never again have to cram extra beds onto its wards, as it did recently to cope with increased covid demands.

As part of its approach to tackling a perfect storm of growing demand, system strains and Covid cases, from last month the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has been placing seven patients into wards made for six.

It has seen patients afforded less space and privacy while they receive treatment, but was deemed a necessary measure for the hospital to cope with the demands it faced.

It is a measure the hospital is hopeful it will not have to rely upon for much longer and one its chief operating officer, Chris Cobb, is desperate not to have to resort to again.

He told the hospital's board of directors: "Numbers have started to calm down but we do still have 104 patients who cannot leave because they have still got Covid.

"We want to never again reach the point where we have to have seven patients in six-bed wards."

The level of pressure on the hospital over December and January contributed to a system-wide "critical incident" being declared by the NHS services in Norfolk and Waveney.

However, this status was de-escalated last week, although the hospital continues to see high levels of demand and has remained at its highest level of alert.

Meanwhile, the meeting heard how despite how the hospital would continue to encourage its staff members to seek out Covid jab, regardless of whether the government completes its u-turn on the vaccine mandate.

Paul Jones, the hospital's chief people officer, said: "The government decision to review the vaccination mandate does remove a very significant amount of pressure on us.

"However it is important to recognise that the issue has not gone away.

"We need to continue with our work to promote to uptake of vaccination among our patients and our staff."

As of last month, more than 29,000 doses of the vaccine had been dished out to the hospital trust's staff members, equating to almost 97pc of its workforce.