Too many hospital beds are occupied by someone who is well enough to go home

THE number of Derbyshire hospital beds occupied by someone well enough to go home rose last week, as pressure on NHS Trusts remains.

While the number of staff off because of Covid has continued to fall, bed occupancy rates remained high and A&ES remained busy.

By the start of last week, Derbyshire hospitals had 235 beds occupied by patients who no longer needed to be in hospital.

That was the equivalent of 12% of the general and acute and adult critical care beds across the trusts.

The figures for last week compare with 213 beds occupied on the Sunday before, or 10.9% of beds. Overall, bed occupancy rates were high.

On January 23, 92.3% of the 1,877 beds open across Derbyshire hospitals were full.

That compares with a 91.8% occupancy rate on January 16.

In intensive care, there were 30 adult critical care beds empty on January 23, according to the latest figures, released on Thursday.

On the Sunday before that, there had been 34 beds free. That’s despite the number of critical care beds open rising from 78 on January 16 to 79 on January 23.

On the same day, neonatal critical care beds were 89.3% full. A&ES continued to come under pressure, as shown by the number of ambulances arriving, and queuing.

A total of 256 ambulances had to wait more than 30 minutes to hand over patients at Derbyshire A&ES last week (16.5%), including 60 waiting more than an hour (3.9%).

That’s the equivalent of one in six ambulances facing a wait of more than half-an-hour.

The target is for handovers to take under 15 minutes.

In the previous week, 222 ambulances waited half-anhour or longer (14.3%), with 16 waiting more than an hour (one per cent).

However, staff absences have continued to fall. A total of 7,600 days were lost at Derbyshire hospitals in the week ending January 23 because staff were sick or self-isolating due to Covid.

That was down 12.1% from 8,644 the week before, and down 19.5% from 9,444 days lost a fortnight ago.

There were 1,898 staff absent for any reason on January 23, the equivalent of one in nine members of staff being off.

Across England, there were 12,984 beds occupied by patients who no longer needed to be in hospital, up from 12,767 beds occupied on the Sunday before.

Elsewhere in trusts, A&ES continued to come under pressure – departments agreed to temporarily divert patients to other A&E departments to relieve pressure 28 times in the week ending January 23. That compares with 25 incidents the week before.

There were 85,467 arrivals at A&E via ambulance across England in the week ending January 23 – an increase of almost 2,000 on the previous week and the busiest week since the start of December.

A total of 15,776 ambulances had to wait more than 30 minutes to handover patients at

A&ES last week (18.5%), including 5,973 waiting more than an hour (7%).

In the previous week, 14,961 ambulances waited half-anhour or longer (17.9%), with 5,610 waiting more than an hour (6.7%). However, staff absences across England were down.

A total of 212,628 days were lost across England in the week ending January 23 because staff were sick or selfisolating due to Covid. That was down 14.6% from 248,882 the week before, and down 33.6% from 320,152 days lost a fortnight ago.

There were 68,175 staff absent for any reason on January 23, the equivalent of one in 20 members of staff being off.

NHS National Medical Director Professor Stephen Powis said: “While it is positive to see more NHS staff back at work, pressure on the NHS is still intense, having seen the busiest week for ambulances taking patients to A&E since the start of December – up almost 2,000 on the week before last – all while pushing to deliver as many routine checks and procedures as possible, including vital diagnostic checks. Our staff have already had what feels like a long winter, but despite everything they have had to contend with, they continue to step up as they always do; answering thousands more 111 calls last week than the seven days before, continuing to care for thousands of Covid patients and maintaining noncovid procedures, and working closely with colleagues in social care to get people out of hospital safely.

“The public can help us by coming forward for their lifesaving Covid vaccines, and as has been the case throughout the pandemic, if you have a health problem, please go to 111 online and call 999 when it is a life threatening condition – the NHS is here for you”.

We’ve seen the busiest week for ambulances taking patients to A&E since the start of December Prof Stephen Powis