Health managers today unveiled a campaign to head off a winter crisis and avoid pressures which earlier this year saw bodies being stored in refrigerated lorries.

Giving more flu vaccinations, extending the working week for some NHS staff across seven days and making sure more bodies can be buried are among plans being prepared by Sussex health executives well before winter kicks in.

Managers are working flat out to make sure hospitals, which often had no free beds last winter, can cope with a surge of flu cases and elderly patients.

Hospitals want to make sure every base is covered, from fuel to blood supplies, from October until the end of March 2001.

For the first time, hospitals and GPs will be backed up by the telephone helpline NHS Direct, which will be introduced in Sussex at the end of October.

Ian Keeber, of Brighton Health Care NHS Trust, which runs four hospitals, said: "We want to offer the safest, smoothest services for our patients, which we can help achieve by planning well in advance."

Hospitals have been facing an unseasonal bout of pressure during the past few weeks, which has highlighted even more strongly the possibility of another winter crisis.

Managers want to make sure 70 per cent of people aged over 65 or in high-risk groups for flu have their immunisations and will bring in exhaustive plans to vaccinate doctors and nurses.

Non-emergency operations will be reduced.

Hospitals will work around the clock with each other to find available beds. Some staff will work weekends to ensure speedy test results.

Earlier this year, pressures at Eastbourne District General Hospital were so severe were stored in bodies in refrigerated lorries.