Home Health The NHS is FULL! Shocking new statistics show 96% of adult beds are occupied… as norovirus jumps again

The NHS is FULL! Shocking new statistics show 96% of adult beds are occupied… as norovirus jumps again

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Several NHS hospitals have declared

The NHS is alarmingly close to capacity, with 96 per cent of adult hospital beds occupied, according to new data revealed today.

More than 97,000 patients were hospitalized in England last week, the highest number of any time so far this winter, officials said.

92 percent is the point at which officials say staff performance drops.

Meanwhile, rates of norovirus, the winter vomiting bug, which had been declining in recent weeks, have risen again, nearly 50 percent higher than expected for this time of year.

Separate surveillance data monitoring the flu outbreak in England also suggests hospital admissions are slightly below the previous week, but still four times the level recorded in early December.

Figures show almost 5,000 beds were occupied by flu patients each day last week, 3.5 times more than the same week last year.

The NHS’s clinical director of emergency care warned that hospitals were “packed” and staff were facing their busiest week yet this winter.

Government ministers also said patients had faced “unacceptable” experiences and acknowledged there was “much more to do”.

Several NHS hospitals have declared “critical incidents”. Pictured, ambulances wait outside the emergency department at Royal Cornwall Hospital on January 4.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Despite NHS staff doing their best, patients’ experiences 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 on the picket lines, and we have protected more patients with the flu vaccine than last year, but we still there is much more to do.

‘It will take time to improve the health service so that patients receive the level of care they deserve, but it is possible.

“Through our Plan for Change, this government is delivering the fundamental investment and reform needed to ensure 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 the news is encouraging, flu cases are no longer increasing, hospitals are not out of the woods yet.”

‘Staff are working incredibly hard in sometimes challenging environments, 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 overcrowded with patients, even as more beds have been opened to cope with increased demand.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said patients had faced experiences

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 that dead patients remain undiscovered for hours in A&E because NHS staff are too overstretched to notice.

The “heartbreaking” report, published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), also revealed that the severe shortage of beds has meant that sick people are also left in “animal” conditions in hospital car parks, cupboards and toilets.

Pregnant women suffer miscarriages in hallways and elderly people languish alone in dirty bedding, according to the 460-page dossier.

It features the testimonies of more than 5,000 nurses, exposing how patients are cruelly “stripped of their dignity” and routinely suffer preventable deaths.

They say it has become “normalized” for patients to be left for days on chairs or trolleys in “inappropriate environments,” rather than in a ward.

Demoralized nurses report caring for up to 40 patients in a single hallway, some of them blocking emergency exits or parked next to vending machines.

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