The NHS in England is busier than it has been going into the winter, the country’s medical director has warned.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis said rising rates of flu and the vomiting bug norovirus were putting hospitals under enormous pressure.
Around 95% of beds are already occupied at the start of December – rates usually only seen in the depths of winter.
The pressure also appears to be having an effect on ambulances after two-thirds of staff face delays when dropping patients off at A&E.
They aim to hand patients over to hospital staff within 15 minutes of arrival, but last week 67 per cent of arrivals took longer than that.
The average transfer time was just over 44 minutes.
The data – the first set of winter performance data – has been published as PM. Set out his six priorities for the government.This includes one for the NHS to bring back hospital waiting times to meet the 18-week target.
But while this is a long-term target, winter figures suggest there is an immediate problem for the NHS to achieve in the coming months.
Sir Stephen, NHS England’s medical director, said: “The NHS is busier than ever before heading into winter, with hospital flu and norovirus numbers rising rapidly – and we’re only at the start of December. So we expect pressure to increase and we have a long winter ahead of us.
“For some time there have been warnings of a ‘tripledemic’ of Covid, flu and RSV this winter, but with norovirus cases on the rise it could quickly become a ‘quademic’.”
Of just over 100,000 beds, an average of 1,100 were occupied with flu patients last week – four times more than at this stage last year, suggesting an early flu peak this winter.
About 1,400 beds were occupied by Covid patients and 750 by norovirus. Another 142 children were hospitalized with RSV each day on average.
Rory Deighton, of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said: “These figures are extremely worrying as they provide further evidence that the NHS is already at the peak of winter pressure.
“We knew health services were running hot, with A&Es, ambulances and general practices being at their busiest in October.
“But it is clear that the impact of the seasonal virus is being felt much earlier than in previous years.”