Rising cases of norovirus push hospital bed capacity to almost 95%
A surge of norovirus is driving ongoing winter pressure on the NHS as hospitals report their busiest January since Covid.
Bed occupancy is at its highest rate for the time of year than any time since 2020, figures from NHS England show.
With a 45% increase in admissions for norovirus in the past week, more than 94% of beds are full, officials warned.
Laboratory data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has also shown a 61% increase in cases of norovirus in the last two weeks.
Reports are highest among those aged 65 years and over and outbreaks in hospital settings are also rising, UKHSA said.
Experts reiterated advice for anyone with diarrhoea and vomiting to stay off school or nursery until 48 hours after their symptoms have stopped and not to prepare food for others in that time.
Another cold snap due this weekend and into next week is likely to increase pressure further the health service said.
But despite an average of 823 norovirus patients in hospital a day, ambulance handover times and A&E four-hour wait targets to seem to have improved, figures suggest.
NHS providers said there will still thousands of patients in hospital with flu but that had fallen by 8% in the past week.
Yet overall more than 4,200 beds were closed or occupied due to Covid-19, flu, norovirus and paediatric RSV last week, they added.
Delayed discharge remains a key issue, with an average of 13,683 beds each day filled with patients no longer need to be there.
NHS national medical director Professor Meghana Pandit said: ‘A rise in this vomiting virus is leaving hospitals under pressure.
‘Norovirus cases didn’t peak until February last winter, so we’re monitoring closely for further increases ahead of another predicted cold snap this weekend.’
Amy Douglas, lead epidemiologist at UKHSA, said: ‘We have seen a notable increase in norovirus cases in recent weeks among those aged 65 years and over, with more hospital outbreaks also being reported.
‘While this is still within expected levels, there are simple steps that people can take to reduce the spread of norovirus and ensure levels don’t rise further.’
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.’
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READERS' COMMENTS [2]
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With the numbers of patients being treated in corridors instead of wards, I could not at first think how bed occupancy could be anything less than 105%
but then I remembered children’s wards !
Bed Capacity though, is always well under what is needed on any one day, at any hospital in our region, and hardly ever gets above negative numbers.
Mr Church is correct the 95% bed occupancy is a red herring as this suggests that beds are available for ED patients to occupy and as we know there are none hence 12 hour waits etc. As we have the morally injurious spectre of normalising corridor care in just about all of our hospitals that take acute admissions, it is patently a lie unless you count the availability of beds that could never be used for the acutely ill. Time to face the fact that hospital bed occupancy has been above the safe limit to allow for surges in need for some time. Yet still we follow the trajectory of closing beds to save money on the premis that an unfunded and largely imaginary community model will solve these issues. As Granny would say ” Lies, damned lies and statistics!”