The British army is on standby after Wales' largest hospital issued a black alert.

The University Hospital of Wales, Wales’ largest hospital, said that it was suffering a "significant and sustained adverse demand" on services.

It said that the alert was the result of "winter operational pressures, coupled with coupled with limited bed availability".

During such alerts, agency staff can be called in to help, with even the military sometimes called upon.

Welsh Conservative shadow health minister, Russell George, said: "This serious situation at the University Hospital of Wales epitomises the crisis at the heart of our Labour-run health service.

"The fact that the military may well have to be drafted in to save Wales’ biggest hospital is to Labour’s shame as they have run our health service into the ground for 25 years.

"During this black alert, staff will have to be diverted meaning further delays in our Welsh NHS which are already the most pronounced in the UK with the equivalent of one-in-four of the population on a waiting list and over 27,000 waiting two or more years, compared with virtually none in England.

"The Welsh Conservatives want to see a properly resourced and reliable Welsh NHS, with the full Barnett consequential allocated to our health service.

"Labour are the only government in the UK to have ever cut a health budget as they have here in Wales, in favour of blanket 20mph speed limits and more politicians."