A UNION official has said hospital staff are "at breaking point, with queues of ambulances expected outside hospitals.

Unison Yorkshire regional organiser Ray Gray said ambulances were likely to queue outside Scarborough Hospital later today but added that the situation in the town was not unusual.

He said that while other hospitals in his region had not declared major incidents, they were all facing similar pressures.

Mr Gray said there were up to a dozen ambulances waiting for more than hour outside Hull Royal Infirmary on Saturday and the hospital had continued to be extremely busy this week.

He said: "The situation at Scarborough is becoming typical.

"It's not even a busy time there. There's been no ice, no snow. What will happen when it does get busy, when it does snow?

"We have to ask why this is happening. I'm told a third of patients at Scarborough A&E should have been going somewhere else but they haven't got access to GPs.

"I don't blame the organisations. However you look at it, it comes down to Government funding."

Mr Gray said his members were under extreme pressure.

"They're at breaking point," he said.

He said he recently went to the A&E at Hull Royal Infirmary to see what was happening there.

"I could not have worked in those conditions," he said.

"And I think things could get worse."