The number of Oahu hospitals turning away ambulances carrying noncritical patients went as high as six Tuesday resulting from the closure of two Hawaii Medical Center hospitals, an Emergency Medical Services spokesman said.

The overload resulted Tuesday when six hospitals diverted patients, leaving the remaining nine to handle emergencies, said Dr. James Ireland, city Emergency Medical Services director. That means the average daily load of 130 patients had to be spread among a smaller number of hospitals, he said.

The number of hospitals on ambulance divert has fluctuated from two to six in the last five days, and everybody has been diverting patients off and on, with the exception of Kahuku Medical Center.