A RECORD proportion of beds are currently occupied at Barnsley Hospital - and Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned that the NHS is ‘on its knees’.
It comes as nurses admitted there is ‘barely a spare bed’ in the entire health service, with health leaders sounding the alarm hospitals are ‘busier than ever’ for this time of year, entering a winter they are ‘desperately worried’ about.
NHS England figures show an average of 473 beds at the Gawber Road site were occupied each day in the week to December 1.
It means around 98 per cent of beds at the trust were occupied last week - up from 95 per cent the year before, and the highest proportion for this time of year since 2020/21.
The figures exclude 20221/22 as comparable figures were not provided.
Nationally, 96,587 hospital beds were occupied each day last week - more than have been recorded at this point in any other year.
It means that around 95 per cent of hospital beds in England are full.
Patricia Marquis, executive director for England for the Royal College of Nursing, said: “There is barely a spare bed in our NHS, with sky-high flu admissions and thousands stuck in hospital unable to be discharged due to a lack of capacity in social care.
“Before the cold weather hits, nursing staff and patients are desperately worried about what the coming weeks and months may bring.”
The figures also show an average of 1,098 flu patients were in hospital beds nationally each day last week, including 39 in critical care.
This is up sharply on the equivalent numbers for the same week in 2023, when the total was 221 with nine in critical care.
It also included three at Barnsley Hospital, although none of these were in critical care.
NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said the NHS is ‘busier than ever’, warning of a ‘quad-demic’ with rising hospital admissions for flu, Covid, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and norovirus.
He said: “The NHS is busier than it has ever been before heading into winter, with flu and norovirus numbers in hospital rising sharply - and we are still only at the start of December, so we expect pressure to increase and there is a long winter ahead of us.”
Lorraine Burnett, chief operating officer at Barnsley Hospital, said: “Like the NHS across the country, our emergency department is really busy, so we’re asking patients and their families to help us.
“Please consider other sources of help and advice such as NHS 111 and community pharmacies for anything that isn’t life-threatening or an emergency, such as colds, ear aches and sore throats.”
Figures have shown there are a significant number of people attending the emergency department who could be seen elsewhere. The hospital would encourage people to help themselves by getting vaccinated against flu and Covid, keeping medicines well stocked and ordering prescriptions well ahead of the Christmas holidays.
Ms Burnett added: “As is often the case in winter, this is not an easy time for our teams across the organisation and we thank them for their continued hard work and professionalism.”
