DORSET County Hospital says it is in a "better position" to deal with the ever increasing winter demand.

As the impact of winter pressures on stretched hospital resources make headlines around the country, the Dorchester hospital's chief operating officer says work that has been going on for several months is starting to pay off.

Despite no let up in the demand, Julie Pearce says that the hospital is coping well compared to previous years and other hospitals.

She said Dorset County Hospital has continued to meet the standard for accident and emergency department waiting times and in recent months was one of the top five or ten performing hospitals in the country.

Mrs Pearce said that a major focus in recent months had been working with partners such as Dorset HealthCare and adult social care services to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and to help patients who do end up in hospital return home as soon as they are able to.

She said: "We are all using our resources slightly differently and I think that's beginning to make a bit of an impact."

Hospital locality teams are now working with partners in the community to support more people at home and more use is being made of community hospitals for those who do not need to go to an acute hospital.

Mrs Pearce said GPs are also playing their part and the key to managing the ever increasing demand was everyone across the health sector working together.

She said: "Generally we are in a better position because we are all working together to make it happen.

"I think at the end of the day patients get a better deal and so do our staff.

"We should be proud of what people have achieved."

Mrs Pearce said that the hospital management had been closely monitoring patient flows to ensure any areas where they are staying for unnecessarily long periods are addressed and there had been a marked reductions in the average lengths of stay.

An investment of £1million in nursing has also helped cope with the demand.

Mrs Pearce said that the hospital had met the four-hour accident and emergency standard in November and December and was currently on course to meet it in January as well.

During the first two weeks of January, which is usually one of the busiest times of the year, the hospital had all of its escalation beds open and had to open up an additional ward area in 2016 but this year no extra capacity was needed and the escalation beds were not all open at times.

Mrs Pearce said: "We have had growth in demand over 2016 but we are dealing with it, which is obviously better for patients and it's also better for our emergency department staff because overcrowding is not good for patients and also not good for staff."