Hospitals in north London say they are facing extreme pressures in the last few months, as health officials claim demand is worse than the peak of the Covid pandemic.
Recent NHS data shows that hundreds of general and acute (G&A) beds at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust – which runs the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead as well as Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals – were occupied on Christmas Day.
The situation is similar at Whittington Hospital in Upper Holloway.
Richard Webber, a spokesman for the College of Paramedics, has said national pressure on the NHS is the worst he has “ever seen”, with elderly patients left waiting as much as 10 hours for treatment.
It comes after more than a dozen NHS trusts and ambulance services declared critical incidents over the festive period, with officials saying rising flu cases and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic have hit the health service.
What is the situation at Whittington Hospital?
The Whittington Health NHS Trust says that it has been “extremely busy” with an influx of patients.
When asked if it was becoming overwhelmed, a spokesperson said: “Like NHS services across the country, Whittington Health is extremely busy as we care for large numbers of patients arriving at our Emergency Department needing care and treatment.
“Our staff are doing everything we can to treat everyone as quickly and safely as possible, but we apologise to anyone who has to wait for a long time.”
On December 25, Whittington Hospital had 254 G&A beds available and 242 beds occupied – and the figures have been similar to this since November 14.
There were 26 patients who waited in an ambulance for at least one hour when they arrived at the hospital in week up to December 25 – out of 244 patients who arrived via ambulance.
To combat the high demand, an additional 22 bed ward was opened for patients who require inpatient care over the winter.
The trust also has 20 virtual ward “beds”, up from eight virtual beds, to treat some patients at home who do not need to take up hospital beds.
A spokesperson explained that an additional 20 remote monitoring beds will be added in the coming weeks.
What is the situation at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust?
On December 25, the NHS trust had 977 G&A beds available and 869 occupied.
Statistics also show 109 patients waited in an ambulance for at least one hour when they arrived at the A&E in the week up to December 25 – a drop from the 171 patients the week before (up to December 18).
A spokesperson for the Royal Free London said: “Like hospitals across the country, our emergency departments and urgent treatment centres are currently very busy and we would like to say a huge thank you to staff for their continued hard work during these challenging winter months.”
What has the Government said?
Health Secretary Steve Barclay has blamed high number of flu cases, Covid-19 and Strep A fears for the pressures faced.
He told broadcasters: “There’s £500 million of investment this year going into tackling the pressure in terms of social care.
“So we’re putting more funding in. We’ve got more clinicians, we’ve got more staff working in the NHS.
“Of course there’s a range of factors that we need to do. There’s been particular pressures over Christmas because we’ve had a surge in flu cases, Covid cases and also a lot of concern around Strep A.”
Mr Barclay also said the Government is focused on freeing up hospital beds and creating more capacity as that will relieve pressures on A&E and will ensure ambulance handover times are reduced.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel