The NHS is alarmingly close to capacity with 96 per cent of adult hospital beds occupied, concerning new data revealed today.
More than 97,000 patients were in hospital in England last week — higher than any point so far this winter, officials said.
92 per cent is the point at at which point officials say performance of staff drops.
Rates of the winter vomiting bug norovirus, meanwhile, which had dipped in recent weeks have surged again — almost 50 per cent higher than expected for this time of year.
Separate surveillance data that monitors England’s flu outbreak also suggests hospital admissions are slightly down on the previous week but still four times the level recorded in early December.
Figures show almost 5,000 beds alone were taken up by flu patients every day last week, up 3.5 times on the same week last year.
The NHS’s clinical director for emergency care warned hospitals were ‘jam-packed’ and staff faced the busiest week yet this winter.
Government ministers also said patients had faced ‘unacceptable’ experiences and acknowledged there was ‘much more to do’.
Multiple NHS hospitals have now declared ‘critical incidents’. Pictured, ambulances wait outside the emergency department at the Royal Cornwall Hospital on January 4
Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting said: ‘Despite NHS staff doing their level best, the experiences of patients this winter are unacceptable.
‘Annual winter pressures, which will always exist, should not automatically lead to an annual winter crisis.
‘We have ended the strikes, so for the first winter in three years staff are on the front line not the picket line, and introduced protected more patients with flu vaccinations than last year, but there is much more to do.
‘It will take time to turn the health service around so patients receive the standards of care they deserve, but it can be done.
‘Through our Plan for Change this government is making the investment and fundamental reform needed to make sure the NHS can be there for us when we need it, once again.’
Professor Julian Redhead, NHS national clinical director for urgent and emergency care added: ‘While it is encouraging news flu cases are no longer increasing, hospitals are not out of the woods yet.
‘Staff are working incredibly hard in sometimes challenging surroundings, but winter viruses are much higher than usual for this time of year.
‘This coupled with the cold snap and problems discharging patients means hospitals are jampacked with patients – even as more beds have been opened to manage increased demand.’
Health secretary Wes Streeting said patients had faced ‘unacceptable’ experiences and acknowledged there was ‘much more to do’
According to the latest NHS weekly figures, 97,636 patients were in hospital last week, with 96 per cent of adult general and acute beds occupied.
Almost one in seven (13,585) were taken up by patients who were medically fit to be discharged.
More than a third of patients arriving by ambulance also waited at least half an hour to be handed over to A&E teams — up on the 25.7 per cent logged on the same time last year.
Roughly one in six patients were also delayed by more than an hour, almost double the same point last year.
It comes just hours after a damning report into the state of the NHS found dead patients are lying undiscovered for hours in A&E because staff are too overstretched to notice.
The ‘harrowing’ report, published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), also revealed a severe shortage of beds has meant the sick are being left in ‘animal-like’ conditions in hospital car parks, cupboards and toilets.
It featured the testimonies of more than 5,000 nurses, who exposed how patients are being cruelly ‘stripped of their dignity’ and routinely suffering avoidable deaths.
The 460-page dossier said it had become ‘normalised’ for patients to be left for days at a time in chairs or trolleys in ‘inappropriate settings’, rather than on a ward.
Norovirus can appear similar the symptoms of Covid, with both viruses causing chills, fever and headaches
Demoralised nurses reported caring for as many as 40 patients in a single corridor – some blocking fire exits or parked next to vending machines.
The report comes just days after figures revealed hospitals left a record 518,000 patients languishing on trolleys in A&E for 12 hours or more last year.
Separate NHS stats today also found more than 650 hospital beds in England were filled each day last week by patients with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms.
Cases of the bug had dipped slightly in recent weeks. But it is up again, 4 per cent on the previous week and 44 per cent on the same point last year.
RSV — which is most common in infants and young children — was almost double the same period in 2023.
More than 1,100 beds were also occupied by patients with Covid.
In response to rising rates of norovirus, flu, RSV and Covid — dubbed the ‘quad-demic’ — some hospitals had begun limiting visiting hours and imposed mask mandates.
Others had declared ‘critical incidents’ — an NHS term that’s used by hospitals when they can no longer guarantee that patient care can be delivered safely.
Such incidents are typically declared in response to overwhelming demand or infrastructure failure.
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