NHS at breaking point as flu crisis prompts ‘black alerts’

life-threatening calls has deteriorated”. The trust said it had received 19,000 emergency calls in the week just ended – one quarter more than the same time last year – while coping with 40 per cent more 111 calls. East of England Ambulance Service, also at maximum capacity, said some patients were being sent taxis to get them to hospital, with paramedics stuck in ambulances queuing at hospitals for more than 500 hours in the last four days.

In addition, 10 hospital trusts said they were at the highest level of pressure – better known as a “black alert” – under a four-point scale of “Operational Pressures Escalation Levels” used to bring emergency plans into motion, when patient safety is at risk.

Dartford and Gravesham trust in Kent, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS trust, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust, Medway NHS Foundation trust, University Hospitals Of Leicester NHS Trust, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals trust, Taunton and Somerset Foundation trust, Yeovil District Hospital Foundation trust and Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation trust were among those admitting they had reached this level of pressure.

Many more refused to provide information about pressure levels, with several saying NHS England no longer allowed them to divulge the information, which used to be published in previous winters. Officials have also stopped weekly updates of data showing how A&E units are performing against the four-hour target. A number of NHS trust chief executives described the pressure as “relentless”.

Dr Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: “The position at the moment is as bad as I’ve ever known. We are simply not coping. We were at full capacity before the sorts of pressures that we should be able to manage – like a rise in flu – is pushing us over the edge. Things are terrible now, but I am fearful the next few weeks will be horrendous.”