Norovirus surge shows winter pressures continue to mount

• There were 2,519 patients in hospital with flu on average each day last week, down 8% on the 2,725 the week before and much lower than the 3,833 reported the same week last year.  
• The number of beds closed due to patients in hospital with norovirus rose 54% from 640 to 984 last week.
• On average, there were 4,216 beds closed or occupied due to Covid-19, flu, norovirus and paediatric RSV last week. This is up from 4,111 the previous week but much lower than the 6,867 reported last year.
• Some 32.5% of ambulance handover delays took longer than 30 minutes down from 36.7% the week before.
• Some 11.9% of handover delays were longer than an hour, down from 14.5%.
• An average of 13,683 beds each day were filled with patients no longer meeting the criteria to reside in hospital last week, up from 13,445 the week before.
• On average, 96.0% of adult G&A beds were occupied last week. The week before, this figure was 94.1%.

Responding to the latest NHS urgent and emergency care situation reports, Matthew Taylor, interim chief executive of NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation said:

“Winter continues to bite, with the NHS under immense strain amid surging levels of norovirus and rising numbers of patients still in hospital when they are medically fit enough to go home. As a result, bed occupancy is still climbing well above safe levels.

“Delayed discharges are a real challenge for NHS leaders and their teams, when patients can’t leave hospital due to a lack of social or community care it causes bottlenecks. The knock-on impact is significant with ambulances taking longer to handover patients and get back on the road, and A&E staff struggling to find beds for patients coming in, forcing them to treat patients in corridors and other inappropriate settings.

“NHS leaders and their teams are working incredibly hard to keep patients safe amid these sustained pressures, so it is welcome to see the drop in flu levels and improvements in ambulance handovers, however, with further cold weather on the horizon it’s unlikely that there will be a let up any time soon.”