England’s top doctor has praised the hard work of staff as new data shows ambulance handover delays have improved despite increased demand, alongside continued pressure from winter viruses and industrial action. The weekly winter figures, published today, show that the hours lost to ambulance handover delays dropped to 18,799 in the week ending February 25, […]

The NHS is facing further strike disruption this week amid continued high demand for services, as its top doctor warns more than one in 10 days have been impacted by strike action in the past year. Strike action by junior doctors will run from 7am on Saturday (24 February) to midnight on Wednesday (28 February) […]

The NHS waiting list fell in December for the third month running, while winter pressure continued to hit the health service hard with A&E and ambulance services experiencing their busiest ever January. England’s top doctor hailed the hard work and dedication of staff as new figures show the number of patients waiting for elective treatment […]

The NHS’s top emergency doctor has warned the health service is still in the thick of winter, with norovirus and flu cases at their highest levels this winter and up three-quarters on the same week last year. The latest weekly winter data shows an average of 688 patients were in hospital each day last week […]

The head of the NHS has praised the hard work of staff for rolling out 5,000 additional permanent, staffed beds this winter – during a period of industrial action and significant pressure. New figures published today show last week, hospitals across the country had an average of 99,750 core beds in place each day – […]

Thousands of people were in hospital with seasonal viruses last week – including rising numbers with norovirus – as NHS staff continue to deal with a range of winter pressures. The latest weekly update shows there were an average of 452 patients with diarrhoea and vomiting symptoms in hospital each day – up by a […]

NHS staff faced the busiest week for ambulances so far this winter with more than 93,500 arriving at hospitals to hand over patients, alongside significant performance improvements. New weekly data shows that extensive winter NHS planning is continuing to pay off, with hours lost to ambulance handover delays more than halved compared to last year, […]

Commenting on the latest round of industrial action, NHS National Medical Director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said: “As the longest strike in the history of the NHS begins during one of the busiest and most challenging weeks of the year – the health service is experiencing the winter pressures of flu and Covid combined with […]

Record industrial action this week could see one of the most difficult starts to the year for health services across the country, the NHS has said today. Junior doctors strike from tomorrow (Wednesday 3 January) at 7am, until 7am on Tuesday 9 January – the longest consecutive strike action ever taken in the history of […]

Thousands of people were in hospital with winter viruses last week, including over 940 patients with flu, as staff contended with significant winter pressure on top of the impact of industrial action. The latest figures for the week to Christmas Eve show there were an average of 942 patients with flu in hospital each day […]