NHS Remains Under Pressure Despite Drop in Flu Levels

Health service leaders have warned that the NHS remains under severe strain despite some improvements in emergency care performance, as hospitals continue to grapple with dangerous bed occupancy levels, thousands of patients stuck in wards awaiting discharge, and surging norovirus infections that threaten to compound an already challenging winter period.

Responding to the latest NHS urgent and emergency care situation reports, Rory Deighton, acute and community care director speaking on behalf of NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation said:

“It is clear that the NHS remains incredibly busy, with high levels of seasonal viruses, hundreds of thousands of calls to NHS 111, hospital bed occupancy remaining at unsafe levels, and rising numbers of delayed discharges.

“NHS leaders and their teams are working incredibly hard to keep patients safe and provide care as quickly as possible. The improvements in ambulance handover times suggests that the extensive planning ahead of winter and extraordinary effort of staff is resulting in more timely care.

“But despite the drop in flu, winter is not over yet, with norovirus levels continuing to mount and more than 14,000 delayed discharge patients causing bottlenecks in systems. When patients can’t leave hospital due to a lack of social or community care the knock-on impact is significant, with ambulances taking longer to get back on the road, and A&E staff struggling to find beds for patients coming in, forcing them to treat patients in corridors and other inappropriate settings.

“Health leaders are under no illusions that there is still a long way to go to tackle these issues and hit the NHS’ key performance targets. This will require sustained focus, realistic planning and continued support, especially in the context of workforce pressures, constrained finances and the potential for yet more industrial action.”