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
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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’
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 NHS 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 also being left in ‘animal-like’ conditions in hospital car parks, cupboards and toilets.
Pregnant women are suffering miscarriages in corridors and the elderly are languishing unaided in soiled bedding, the 460-page dossier said.
It features the testimonies of more than 5,000 nurses, who expose how patients are being cruelly ‘stripped of their dignity’ and routinely suffering avoidable deaths.
They say it has become ‘normalised’ for patients to be left for days at a time in chairs or trolleys in ‘inappropriate settings’, rather than on a ward.
Demoralised nurses report caring for as many as 40 patients in a single corridor – some blocking fire exits or parked next to vending machines.
