Hospital wards huge pressure

four-hour performance is better than in December 2017 and a testament to both our staff and the measures put in place to mitigate the impact of winter.

“While it isn’t a huge improvement, and 63pc of our Emergency Departments remain in the Red Zone, it is certainly welcome for patients, particularly in the context of the highest ever attendances and admissions for a December.

“However, it should also be remembered that the last few months have been particularly benign in terms of the weather and instances of flu have so far been lower than in previous years.”

The latest figures covering hospital performance between December 31 and January 6 suggest that hospitals are continuing to cope better than last winter.

In A&E, patients had to be temporarily diverted from busy departments 17 times in the week ending January 6, compared to 32 times in the week ending January 7, 2018.

The latest NHS England figures charting the situation in hospitals this winter shows that in the week ending January 6, 12,285 ambulances had to wait more than 30 minutes outside A&Es.

This was the equivalent of one in eight (12pc) of ambulances arriving.

A total of 2,986 ambulances had to wait more than an hour to handover.

In the week to January 7, 2018, 16,690 ambulances took more than an hour to hand over patients at A&Es, with 5,082 taking more than an hour.

This was the equivalent of one in six ambulance arrivals (17pc). The occupation rate for general and acute beds was 93.2pc in the first week of 2019, which compares to 95pc in the same week in 2018. Critical care beds were also less busy, with 78.5pc of beds occupied, down from 82.2pc in 2018. There were 597 beds closed because of norovirus-type symptoms as of January 6, compared to 819 as of January 7, 2018. The number of beds occupied by patients who had been there for more than a week as of the same date was down 7pc compared to a year before, and stays of over three weeks were down by 10pc. Dr Taj Hassan