TWO patients have died after waiting for treatment on trolleys in corridors at Worcestershire Royal Hospital – prompting calls for an urgent investigation.

One patient died from a cardiac arrest after 35 hours waiting in a corridor. Another, who had an aneurysm, was taken into the resuscitation area but died.

Worcester's MP Robin Walker is pushing for an emergency meeting with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to discuss ongoing pressure at the Royal, while a leading patient watchdog says the county's NHS "simply cannot carry on like this".

Both deaths happened at the hospital's A&E department in Worcester in the last week.

It is understood a female patient on an emergency trolley in a corridor within A&E suffered an aneurysm and later died in a resuscitation bay.

The other patient died after suffering a cardiac arrest on another A&E trolley within the department, after waiting 35 hours for a ward bed.

A third death, reported to have been someone hanging themselves on a ward, also happened elsewhere in the hospital.

All three deaths are understood to have happened between Saturday and midnight on Tuesday.

During that period, Minor Injury Units across the county were closed so staff could be redeployed to A&E at Worcestershire Royal in a bid to ease pressure there.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust has confirmed investigations into the deaths are ongoing.

A spokesman said the trust cannot comment on individual cases, but as with any "unexpected death" at the hospital there will be a "review and appropriate investigation".

Peter Pinfield, chairman of patient watchdog Healthwatch Worcestershire, says the review need to be "thorough" so relatives of those involved and the wider public can be reassured there is no link between the deaths and ongoing capacity issues at the hospital.

"Healthwatch has been making the point about capacity issue at Worcester for a long time," he said. "I welcome MPs meeting the Health Secretary – I hope he listens. We cannot carry on like this in Worcestershire."

Mr Walker says he is "very concerned about the situation" and is seeking an urgent meeting with the Health Secretary.

"I want to co-ordinate it with Karen Lumley (Redditch's MP) and between the two of us, set something up," he said.

"We have an ageing population and the current situation shows more and more people genuinely need support from the hospital, so the system needs upgrading.

"The staff there are working incredibly hard. But the hospital was built in the 1990s to serve the population of the city.

"It is becoming clear it is to now serve the whole of the county. The structure needs to be there. We need the expansion to deal with it."

Worcestershire Acute Trust remains in special measures after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection report late in 2015 flagged up concerns and branded the trust "inadequate overall".

Patients being cared for on trolleys in corridors when wards were full was one of the safety concerns flagged up by inspectors.

A spokesman for Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Trust said: "We had plans for the Christmas and new year period and those plans are to ensure patients are seen in order of clinical priority.

"We do accept people have been waiting longer than we would expect in A&E corridors, and we apologise for that.

"We welcome the support of local MPs. We meet with them regularly and are happy for them to meet the Secretary of State, to talk about the issues relating to the trust."