A ledbury doctor says a shortage of beds at Hereford Hospital has reached crisis level and patients' lives are being put at risk.

Dr Nick Meyer, from St Katherine's surgery, said that last week he had a patient in Ledbury with a coronary. He called for an ambulance which arrived swiftly and called the hospital for a bed, only to be told there was a waiting list and his patient was number six in the queue.

When his patient was put into the ambulance she had a cardiac arrest. She was resuscitated and stabilised but the hospital still maintained there was no bed available for her and she would have to wait in Accident and Emergency.

Dr Meyer said that was not acceptable because his patient needed to go to a coronary care unit.

"I said I was not at all happy and told them I would go to the media. Lo and behold she was diverted to a coronary care unit, where she had two more cardiac arrests and needed resuscitating."

Dr Meyer said shortage of beds was a constant problem.

"Almost every day we are ringing up and being told that there are no beds available," he explained.

"A week before this happened I had a very seriously ill patient in the Cottage Hospital who needed transferring. I arranged a transfer in the early afternoon but she didn't go over until 11.30pm.

"We've never had a bed crisis in the summer before. Now every week we're having problems and its putting patients' lives at risk."

Dr Meyer said he was concerned the new Hereford hospital being built is going to have fewer beds than is currently available.

Dr Janet Steven, director of operations and nursing, said they could not afford to spend public money on beds that stand idle.

"It costs more to have more beds because you have to have more staff. For example, a coronary care bed may need on average four nurses every 24 hours, so you are talking about £75,000 a day of public money that potentially may not be needed."

"It's a very fine balancing act and we don't know if we've got it right yet," she said.