Hospital bosses owe an enormous debt of gratitude to their staff after an exceptionally tough few months, according to the trust’s chief executive.

Adam Cairns told Airedale NHS Trust board the whole NHS had so far experienced a very difficult winter, with employees struggling to juggle a range of competing priorities.

Focusing on Airedale’s experience, he said: “Our resources have been spread thin. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to staff for keeping the show on the road.

“Some of them have been displaying signs of stress, which is inevitable given the amount of work they’ve been faced with.

“We are doing what we can to support them. It’s been a remarkably busy period for this hospital.”

In his monthly written report to the board, he added: “Emergency demand has been consistently high and, in fact, the hospital had its busiest ever day recently when we admitted 67 acute patients.

“There seems little prospect of any imminent reduction in levels of demand. There are signs that the system is straining under the pressure.”

Non-executive director Jeff Colclough pointed out it was worth noting that this winter had not been especially severe in terms of weather or illness.

He said it was important the hospital used its current difficulties to learn lessons.

Mr Cairns conceded: “We are running a very tight system with very little flexibility.”

He said the hospital was fully committed to begin planning its strategy for next winter as early as possible.