is bursting at the seams with elderly patients who have nowhere else to go.

Hospital spokeswoman Kendaree Burgess-Fairn admitted the hospital was full and that some non-urgent surgery had been cancelled.

She said yesterday: "We have patients in acute care beds, like the elderly, while people are searching for places to send them.'' "The hospital is full and we decided to cancel some of the people who were scheduled for elective surgery.'' But she insisted there was no cause for concern -- and that emergency patients will still be taken in.

And she urged the public to exercise patience while the hospital deals with the shortage of available beds.

Ms Burgess-Fairn added another reason for the shortage was the fact that many patients required treatment which needed longer recovery time in hospital.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann yesterday told The Royal Gazette that it was too early to sound alarm bells that an ageing population was leading to hospital woes.

"It's a little too early to blame it on this,'' he said. "Some time ago we had similar problems when we had people in beds longer.'' But he said that in the future, the pressures of an ageing population could affect the hospital.

"The pressures will increase as the population ages if the hospital does not increase with it,'' he explained. "It will take some time to develop, we won't see this until some time down the road.'' Dr. Cann said the present dilemma was due to a number of factors including a lack of community facilities.

"There are a number of variables,'' he said. "There is the demand on hospital beds and the lack of space in the community.''