Hospital admin staff have been helping hard-pressed doctors on wards as they battle to cope with an unprecedented surge in patients pouring into A&Es.

A spokesman for Epsom and St Helier hospitals said corporate staff have been acting as "ward buddies" doing the paperwork while doctors made sure people were discharged as soon as possible.

Last Monday the hospital trust decided the situation was so challenging that it had become a "business continuity incident" and stepped up its game to cope with the exceptional demand.

On Thursday the Daily Mirror included Epsom and St Helier on its list of 17 hospitals "forced to take action because of pressure on A&E" across the country, but the hospital insisted this was an error and on Friday a hospital spokeswoman said: "It is not a crisis, as of yesterday we were back to seeing 100 percent of patients within four hours at Epsom."

This newspaper has repeatedly asked the trust for detailed statistics on the situation at its A&Es last week and to interview a clinician, and it offered to allow a reporter to visit the departments to see for themselves what was happening.

But instead a hospital spokeswoman rang late on Friday afternoon to say staff were making "superhuman efforts" and "it remains very busy on the ground."

She said people had been left waiting longer than they would have liked and there were times when A&E patients did not have an "identified bed" to go to.

She thanked staff for their "incredible" hard work and said: "We made sure we opened up every bit of available space we could. It allows the whole system to flow.

"The whole hospital was working together with social services and commissioners to make sure the system worked together."

St Helier Hospital saw 98 per cent of patients within four hours on Thursday, but the spokeswoman did not have data to hand on waiting times earlier in the week.

In the week ending Sunday December 28, when pressure was already intense, the hospitals saw 91.8 per cent of patients within four hours and failed to hit the Government target of 95 per cent.

Of the overall response to the huge pressure on A&E departments, the spokeswoman said: "The trust has done a really good job. We have not declared a major incident."

For the NHS a major incident is defined as a rare occurrence that presents "serious threat to the health of the community", disruption to the services or requires special arrangements.

Healthwatch Surrey, a watchdog for health and social care, has voiced concern over the impact on patients unable to access planned operations or appointments.

The group said: "As these pressures continue, with increasing concern that their local A&E is in crisis, patients and their families are now faced with much longer waits."

Engagement manager Jane Shipp thanks staff for their extremely hard work and said they would share experiences of patients so any lessons can be learnt.

Anyone affected is asked to call Healthwatch Surrey on 0303 303 0023, text 07592 787533 or email enquiries@healthwatchsurrey.co.uk