Commenting on the NHS weekly winter operational update for the week ending 12 March 2023, NHS National Medical Director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “Last week was a clear reminder that, even as we head into Spring, pressure on NHS staff remains significant with almost 5,000 more patients in hospital beds every day last week […]

Patients are set to receive an enhanced NHS 111 offer including increased access to specialist paediatric advice for children and direct access to urgent mental health support, as part of a blueprint set out today to help recover urgent and emergency care services. Parents and carers seeking health advice for children and young people using […]

The NHS is asking patients to seek emergency care if they need to during industrial action and take simple steps to help ensure care is available to patients who need it most. This includes using services wisely by going to NHS 111 online as the first port of call for health needs and continuing to […]

The number of patients with flu in hospital has increased by two thirds in one week amid significant pressure on services, the NHS said today. New published data shows the post-pandemic impact of viruses circulating again with an average of 1,939 flu cases in England’s hospitals every day last week (up from 1,162). Weekly winter […]

The NHS is reminding people they can get assessed and directed to the care they need by using NHS 111 online without leaving the comfort of their homes, with new TV adverts running from today. As part of the next stage of the NHS ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign, television adverts will show people travelling […]

NHS staff dealt with a significant number of NHS 111 calls last week with over 700,000 calls in one week alone – an increase of over 60% compared to the previous week (from 440,047 to 706,129). Excluding two weeks in the first month of the Covid pandemic (March 2020), this is the highest number of […]

Hundreds of NHS beds in England were taken up by patients with flu every day over the last week, according to new weekly figures. The first weekly winter update shows there were an average of 344 patients a day with flu in hospital last week, more than 10 times the number seen at the beginning […]

The NHS is launching its annual NHS 111 Online campaign today, encouraging people to get the help they need from the convenience of their own homes ahead of winter. From today (Thursday 24 November), a new national campaign will remind the public they can use the NHS 111 online service for urgent help on a […]

NHS National Medical Director Professor Stephen Powis said: “Omicron means more patients to treat and fewer staff to treat them. In fact, around 10,000 more colleagues across the NHS were absent each day last week compared with the previous seven days and almost half of all absences are now down to COVID. “While we don’t […]

NHS staff answered the highest number of 999 calls for any November on record, an average of around one every three seconds, new figures revealed today. Last month was also the second busiest November on record for A&E with more than two million patients seen at emergency departments and urgent treatment centres. That was up […]