A&E NHS staff are under the same pressure as they were “during the height of the pandemic”, a health chief has warned, as emergency departments have had their busiest year on record.
NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis warned it was hard to quantify just “how tough it is for frontline staff at the moment”.
He said some A&E staff were saying “their days at work feel like some of the days we had during the height of the pandemic”.
It comes as figures show that A&E departments and ambulance teams had their busiest year on record and flu continues to pile pressure on hospitals into the new year.
The number of flu patients in hospital in England continues to increase and is nearly five times the level it was at the start of December, NHS figures released on Thursday show.
An average of 5,408 people with flu were in hospital beds in England each day last week, up 21% on the week prior, and higher than this point last winter or the winter before.
Meanwhile, there were 8.9 million incidents handled by ambulance teams in England overall last year, up from 8.35 million in 2023.
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The total number of A&E attendances in 2024 hit 27.4 million, with 2.35 million last month alone.
In all but the most serious cases, ambulance waiting times were worse in December 2024 than in December 2023.
‘Hospitals are full to bursting’
Sir Stephen said: “It is clear that hospitals are under exceptional pressure at the start of this new year, with mammoth demand stemming from this ongoing cold weather snap and respiratory viruses like flu – all on the back of 2024 being the busiest year on record for A&E and ambulance teams.”
He added some hospitals were “full to bursting”.
It comes after around 20 NHS trusts across England declared critical incidents.
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The waiting list for routine hospital treatment fell to its lowest level in 18 months, separate figures showed.
An estimated 7.48 million treatments, relating to 6.28 million patients, were waiting to be carried out at the end of November – down from 7.54 million treatments and 6.34 million patients at the end of October.
The list hit a record high in September 2023 with 7.77 million treatments, relating to 6.50 million patients, waiting to be carried out.
While RSV levels among hospitalised children were slightly down on the previous week, they remained higher than at this point over the last two years.
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Similarly, an average of 626 hospital beds in England were filled each day last week with patients with norovirus-like symptoms or diarrhoea and vomiting, which was up on last week and this point in both previous winters.
