Britain’s hospitals are reeling as the number of patients suffering severe winter bugs increases – with senior medics describing it as ‘the straw that breaks the camel’s back’.
The crisis, caused by flu but exacerbated by the norovirus, RSV and Covid diseases, has already led to a dozen hospitals reporting critical incidents, meaning they are struggling to provide safe care to patients.
But official data, analyzed by MailOnline and compiled into a searchable tool, shows some NHS hospitals are doing worse than others.
Nationally, around one in 20 beds in the NHS in England is occupied by patients affected by one of the ‘quad-demic’ viruses.
However, this website can reveal that this increase is to almost one in five beds in some of the worst hit trusts.
The latest NHS data, dated December 29, shows that 19 per cent of the approximately 550 beds at East Cheshire NHS Trust were occupied by a patient suffering from a quad-demic disease.
This figure, which includes beds or ‘closed’ as part of quarantine measures to prevent highly contagious infections, such as the winter vomiting virus norovirus, from spreading from patient to patient, was the highest in the country.
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in London came second and third respectively, recording that 11 and 10 percent of their beds were occupied by people infected with winter diseases.
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By pathogen, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust recorded the largest proportion of general admission beds occupied by flu patients: seven per cent (112 beds).
This was followed by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust with six per cent and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust with five per cent.
East Cheshire had the highest proportion of beds with someone affected by winter vomiting virus norovirus, with seven per cent occupied by a patient or ‘locked down’ as part of internal quarantine measures.
This is more than double the proportion compared to the next worst-hit trusts, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and the aforementioned Bolton, where three percent of beds were occupied by such patients.
Norovirus, which can cause extreme vomiting and diarrhea, can normally be treated at home in most patients, but vulnerable people such as young children and the elderly may require hospital care.
East Cheshire, Royal Cornwall and Bolton also recorded the highest proportion of beds occupied by RSV patients in the NHS in England: 7 per cent for East Cheshire and 3 per cent each for Royal Cornwall and Bolton.
RSV, short for Respiratory Syncytial Virus, is a common winter bug that causes coughs and colds in most people, but can be dangerous for very young children.
Bolton was one of several trusts to introduce mask requirements on its premises this week in a bid to combat the spread of viruses on its wards.
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Although Covid is nowhere near levels at the height of the pandemic, it is still draining the resources of the NHS, especially in London.
Three capital trusts Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust recorded two to three per cent of beds occupied by Covid patients requiring hospital care.
Nationally, around one in twenty of the approximately 100,000 beds in the NHS was occupied by someone suffering from a winter virus.
While they are still in the minority, with others picked up by accidents, health emergencies such as strokes and patients recovering from surgery, senior medics have warned for years that the NHS does not have the overall capacity to deal with even small waves of illness to go.
For patients, this can lead to painful waits for days in the emergency department or to undergoing inhumane ‘corridor care’ due to a lack of beds.
NHS ‘beds’ are not just a physical piece of furniture, they are also a measure of the number of staff available to care for patients, meaning the number available can vary slightly from day to day.
Healthcare data shows that as of December 29, more than nine in 10 of all NHS beds were occupied by a patient.
Several hospital bosses have cited a rise in emergency admissions for respiratory infections such as flu as part of their reasons for declaring a critical incident.
Multiple NHS hospitals have now declared ‘critical incidents’ as the healthcare system continues to be hit by flu admissions amid an ongoing ‘quademic’ of winter viruses
Yesterday, the NHS’s national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, warned that demand for hospitals shows ‘no signs of abating’.
‘The latest data shows that flu cases rose to around 5,000 per day in hospitals by the end of last year and multiple trusts across the country are reporting incidents to help them cope with the extra pressure on services,’ it said he.
‘On top of flu, hospitals are also seeing continued pressure from Covid, RSV and norovirus cases, while the ‘quad-demic’ continues to increase pressure within services.’
Other hospitals, while not reporting any critical incidents, have warned that they are extremely busy. Some are even going so far as to ban visitors from seeing patients, echoing some of the darkest days of the Covid pandemic.
There are also fears that the situation will worsen in the coming days.
The bed data reflects the situation the NHS faced before a wave of freezing weather hit Britain.
In a preview of the mercury’s decline, health chiefs said they feared the ‘extreme’ and ‘dangerous’ cold snap would further increase pressure on already overburdened hospitals.
Just this week, the UK Health Security Agency extended its ‘amber’ health warning for colds until midday on Sunday 12 January. The previous warning was due to expire today (Wednesday).
Snow in Allenheads, Northumberland, photographed on Thursday morning. In a preview of the mercury’s decline, health chiefs said they feared the ‘extreme’ and ‘dangerous’ cold snap would further increase pressure on already overburdened hospitals.
Cold temperatures often lead to more and more vulnerable people becoming seriously ill from winter pathogens, such as the flu.
This is due to several factors, such as the body becoming weakened by trying to stay warm, viruses can multiply more easily in the cold air that is breathed, and pathogens themselves are more easily transmitted as people spend more time indoors.
UKHSA itself has warned that the weather is likely to cause ‘significant impacts on health and social care’, including an ‘increase in deaths, particularly among people aged 65 and over or with health problems’.
Infectious disease experts have also warned that the situation could become worse in the past as people who become infected by socializing indoors over Christmas and New Year become ill or their condition worsens and they require NHS care.
There are also concerns that another virus, human metapneumovirus (hMPV), could put even more pressure on the healthcare system in the coming weeks.
Show official data one in ten children tested for respiratory infections in hospital were positive for hMPV on December 23.
This is more than double the proportion of very young children who tested positive for the virus at the end of November.
Although hMPV usually causes a mild illness similar to the common cold, very young children, in addition to the elderly and weakened immune systems such as cancer patients, are at increased risk of serious illness.
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Concerns were raised after disturbing images of Chinese hospitals being overrun with hMPV patients.
However, British officials say levels in Britain are currently what would be expected for this time of year.
Despite mounting pressure, the latest official data shows just under one in four frontline healthcare workers in England have been affected flu vaccine this year.
The government report shows that in total only 24.3 percent of staff responsible for direct patient care have been vaccinated against flu.
Analysis of the data showed that vaccination rates this year in every staff group, including NHS hospital staff, paramedics and GPs, are lower than in the 2023 season.