Nine in 10 hospitals 'overcrowded' this winter

The number of patients on hospital wards in England has been at unsafe levels at nine in 10 NHS trusts this winter.

Hospitals are not meant to have over 85% of beds 
occupied to minimise the risk of infections and delays 
in getting treatment.

But the analysis showed 137 out of 152 hospital trusts have been above that level since the start of December.

NHS bosses said hospitals had major problems 
discharging frail patients.

They said a lack of care in the community meant they were
having to keep patients on wards.


Overcrowded hospital 

9 in 10

hospitals have had too many patients this winter


85% is the safe level for bed occupancy in hospitals

137 out of 152 hospital trusts have been above this level

20 more hospitals needed to bring NHS to safe levels


One experienced hospital boss described some of the 
weeks this winter as the "worst" he had seen in his career.

Meanwhile, patients have been contacting the media to 
report the chaos they have experienced in overcrowded hospitals.

This includes long waits on trolleys for a bed to become
 free, queues of patients blocking A&E departments, overworked staff on wards and operations being cancelled
 at the last minute.

Richard Taylor, 55, from Liverpool, says he was left
 devastated after watching the "undignified" death of his 
mum Sheila in January.

She had cancer, but her local cancer centre was full and 
so was unable to give her end-of-life care.

She was taken to Aintree Hospital but spent 13 hours 
on a trolley waiting for a bed before being admitted. A
 week later she died at the age of 78.

"The nursing staff were fantastic, but there is only so much they can do," Mr Taylor said.

"It was awful watching someone die in this extremely undignified way. If she was an animal, they would have 
put her down - she was starving and dehydrated.


"The NHS is a great thing, but it is under the hammer."



Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, said the bed shortages were 
"extremely worrying".

"Above 85% and the risks start rising and once you get into
 the 90% it is significant. You don't get this in other 
countries and it just shows the pressure hospitals are
 under," he added.

The analysis, which looked at week day occupancy levels 
from 1 December to 22 January, showed that over 60 
hospital trusts had rates of above 95%.

One of those was Basildon and Thurrock. Its interim
 managing director, Tom Abell, said it had been an "exceptionally busy" winter.

He said the bed shortage was also to do with the 
numbers coming into hospital as well as the problems discharging patients.

"Previously it would be unusual to see more than 350
 people in our A&E in one day but this is now the norm. 
We've had several days where more than 450 people 
were treated."

Andrew Foster, who runs three hospitals for the 
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust, said the start
 to the year has been "the worst I've known".

"It started from Boxing Day onwards," he said. "Cubicles in 
A&E were full, we had ambulance staff queuing in the corridors and we could not get patients out of hospital. 
The whole system backed up."


A spokesman for NHS England acknowledged the
 situation was impacting on the way hospitals were performing.

He said "the single most helpful change" would be to
 tackle the problem of delayed discharges, which is
 caused by a lack of available services in the community
 to take care of frail patients when their medical care
 had finished.

Without that support being provided - either from council 
care teams or district nursing - these patients cannot be discharged.

None of the other UK nations could provide the bed
occupancy data this winter.

Meanwhile, the government in England has announced
 a crackdown on patients from abroad using the NHS.

Under new rules which will be put in place from April, 
hospitals will be expected to check upfront whether an individual is eligible for free non-urgent care by asking
 for ID.

It comes as a poll by Ipsos MORI for the 1,033
 adults across the UK has suggested three-quarters want 
to see charges increased for people coming from abroad
 as a way of raising more money for the NHS.

That compared to 40% who wanted to see income
 tax increased and 37% who backed some charging
 for services.

England's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "We have
 no problem with overseas visitors using our NHS - as long 
as they make a fair contribution, just as the British
 taxpayers does."