Doctors will be stationed at A&E doors to turn away less serious patients as overcrowding hits boiling point

DOCTORS and nurses will be stationed at A&E department doors to turn away less serious patients during record overcrowding, it is revealed today.

Hospitals have been told to divert patients from casualty units as Christmas approaches.

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At least 14 have already set up schemes to prioritise the sickest.

NHS England has ordered dozens more struggling sites to take similar steps in a matter of days.

Most operations have already been suspended for a month to reduce bed blocking.

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Hospitals were given a deadline of today to cut occupancy from 95 per cent to 85 per cent.

The new measure comes following warnings of “significant gaps” in the health service’s plans for winter.

Patients Association chief Katherine Murphy said: “It is really worrying to see these sort of 11th-hour steps when we have seen the crisis coming for so long.”