NHS winter pressures 'show no sign of easing' as flu and bed occupancy remain high

Winter pressures on the NHS in England are showing "no sign of easing", health chiefs have warned. This comes as the NHS is preparing for a fresh round of strike action by junior doctors later this month.

The latest weekly snapshot of the performance of hospitals in England shows the range of pressures the health service is facing. An average of 2,390 people were in hospital each day last week with flu, including 98 in critical care beds.

The total is down slightly by 4% from 2,478 the previous week, but is still up 82% since the start of January, according to NHS data. Flu infections this year have surged at a later point than last winter.

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Meanwhile, 33% of hospital patients in England arriving by ambulance in the week to February 11 had to wait more than half an hour to be handed over to A&E teams. This is up from 31% in the previous week and is close to this winter's peak of 34%, which was reached at the end of January.

The number of patients waiting is much higher than last year's 20%. Last week, 13% of patients waited over an hour to be seen, a slight increase from the previous week's 12%, and higher than the 7% at this time in 2023.

Delays in admitting new patients can indicate a lack of available beds, often due to difficulties discharging those who are ready to leave. On average, 13,766 hospital beds per day last week were occupied by people ready to be discharged.

This figure is lower than the previous week's 14,252, but still significantly higher than most of the winter.

Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts in England, said that pressures on hospital beds were “unrelenting” and demands on the NHS