EXTRA beds will be opening up at Hull Royal Infirmary next week to help with winter pressures.
The hospital is preparing from an influx in admissions over the coming weeks and has put together a Winter Plan, to help cope with demands.
A total of 36 additional beds will be opening on floor 12 of the tower block – 26 next week and another ten in mid-January.
Another three beds will be opening in surgery units.
More nursing staff are also being employed and extra space is being created for the emergency department.
Jacqueline Myers, the hospital's director of planning and development, said: "The Winter Plan has two key elements – additional capacity and work to strengthen the ways we do things.
"We did some analysis and looked at previous years and worked out how many more beds we would need.
"We've made sure they would be where they were needed and we were determined they would be at Hull Royal Infirmary, rather than at Castle Hill Hospital."
Extra room has been created by moving some of the children's beds from floor 12 over to the Women's and Children's building on the other side of the site.
It is hoped these departments will now remain where they are.
Mrs Myers said: "From about now we're starting to get more busy.
"We get busier again at Christmas, and then we're most busy from the end of January to March.
"Of course, every year is different – we had the snows in 2010 – so things can change, but generally that is what we're working to."
The first signs of winter pressures have already begun to show – with the first ward closure due to norovirus happening this week.
Winter can often see infections spread quickly and wards closed to new patients to help contain them.
Mrs Myers said: "We're also getting some additional nursing staff to staff the extra beds.
"Our planned recruitment is 15 trained nurses and 10 healthcare assistants and some of those are already in place.
"We've gone out to recruit again, but in the mean time we're using bank staff."
The extra provisions have been paid for thanks to £2.1m from the NHS Hull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
A total of £40,000 of this has been put aside for emergency transport.
Mrs Myers said: "When we had the snows, Yorkshire Ambulance Service was so pressured, they couldn't take patients home who had been discharged.
"So we had a scenario where people were well enough to go to a care home, respite care or home, but there was no one to take them, so we couldn't use their beds.
"So this time we have the money to call on another provider if we need to."
The extra space at A&E has been created near the back of the hospital, as the department is currently undergoing improvement works which won't be complete until October 2014.
A temporary building has been fitted underneath the canopy near where ambulances used to come in.
The building will provide eight more cubicles, increasing the amount available from 14 to 22.
Mrs Myers said: "It isn't perfect, but it is a solution to get us through winter."
The CCG money is also paying for other additional winter measures – including a surgical registrar, a patient flow manager and making services like occupational therapy and MRI seven days a week rather than five.
Mrs Myers said: "We have a robust plan – we believe we have made good plans for unexpected pressures.
"It is very difficult to say 'we can deal with everything', because we can't predict the future.
"But we know we're doing everything we can to keep patients safe."
