The head of the NHS has praised the hard work of staff for rolling out additional permanent, staffed beds this winter – during a period of industrial action and significant pressure.

New figures published today show that last week, hospitals across the North East and Yorkshire had an average of 17,356 General & Acute beds in place each day – up since the start of the year to align with the expected peak in Covid and flu admissions.

However, today’s data also shows rising demand due to seasonal pressures – with the number of people in North East and Yorkshire hospitals with flu continuing to rise. Last week, 274 patients were in hospital with the virus, up 10% on the same week in December (249).

As part of its urgent and emergency care recovery plan, the NHS committed to an additional 5,000 ‘core’ G&A beds nationally to increase the level of permanent, staffed, and sustainable beds over winter, as opposed to relying on escalation beds that are normally stood up during periods of extreme pressure.

NHS hospital teams in our region have found new and innovative ways to roll out extra beds, with Barnsley Hospital refitting and refurbishing two wards this winter to put in place 38 extra beds. Additionally, local teams across the region have worked hard to roll out additional ‘core’ beds, helping the NHS better manage increased winter pressures, significant demand, and rising numbers of patients with seasonal viruses.

NHS chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, said: “A year ago we launched our urgent and emergency care recovery plan, setting out how we planned to improve patient experience by boosting capacity with thousands more beds, new ambulances, and the expansion of measures like our world-leading virtual ward programme, community response teams and care ‘traffic control centres’.

“We know NHS staff are working tirelessly to deliver the best possible care under real pressure. And by boosting capacity alongside other key steps in the recovery plan, we have seen improved waiting times for patients, which were better every month in 2023 than the year before.

“But we know there is still further to go, which is why we will continue to expand these measures in the coming months.”

One year on from the UEC recovery plan the NHS has rolled out new ways of working as well as bringing in more capacity – from most trusts using Same Day Emergency Care centres and Urgent Community Response teams, the continued roll-out of more than 200 Acute Respiratory Infection hubs, to meet our aim of 10,000 virtual ward beds ahead of target.

The 5,000 extra beds ambition across the country was against a baseline of 94,500, the original level of core beds planned by NHS trusts in 2022/23.

This significant boost means the NHS now has a total of 103,277 general and acute beds in place – more than 1,800 more than the same week last year. Occupancy has remained high this winter, with over 2,000 more patients in hospital each day last week compared to the same period last winter.

The latest weekly sit rep data is available on our website here.