Data released yesterday shows NHS pressures are not letting up as winter ends, with huge demand on services last week. Local people are asked to continue to choose the best health service for their need and collect loved ones who are ready to be discharged from hospital.
Dr Nigel Acheson, Chief Medical Officer for NHS Devon, said: “This winter has been incredibly busy and challenging for the NHS with staff juggling high demand for services, pressure caused by flu, Covid and norovirus, high bed occupancy and periods of industrial action.
“This latest data shows we are still experiencing significant demand going into spring.”
“It is important that those needing emergency or life-saving care contact 999 or attend ED but we ask everyone else to choose the best service for their medical need. If your condition isn’t life-threatening, consider 111, your GP or local pharmacy first.
“To ensure we can free up beds for the really sick patients who are coming into our emergency departments, we ask anyone who has a loved one in hospital who is ready to come home, to come and collect them as soon as possible.”
Local people can do their bit to help NHS services by:
• Continue to call 999 in emergency and life-threatening cases – when someone is seriously ill or injured, or their life is at risk
The latest weekly national data continues to show a reduction in flu cases in hospital, however there were still on average 1,333 patients in a ward bed with flu each day last week. While this was down by just under a half when compared to the current peak for this winter of 2,487 flu cases per day (w/e 4 February 2024), it was still more than three times higher compared to the same week last year (430 for w/e 5 March 2023).
The number of patients with norovirus remained the same as last week, with an average of 470 patients with the virus in hospital every day. The latest data also shows there were 1,862 beds occupied by patients with Covid-19.
There was a significant increase in the number of calls answered by NHS 111 last week compared to the same period last year, up a fifth from 297,586 to 363,480. Despite higher demand, 111 call handlers answered more than two thirds (67.4%) of calls within a minute, up from 48.6% last year.
And new data shows GPs seeing record numbers of patients, with 53 million more appointments – excluding those for Covid vaccinations – delivered last year, compared to before the pandemic.
Around 19 in 20 (94.5%) adult general and acute beds were occupied last week, with 13,375 beds taken up by patients medically fit for discharge.
Despite the NHS having 1,716 more adult beds in place compared to the same week last year, there were an extra 598 occupied each day.
There were 92,763 total ambulance handovers to hospital, up 16% on 79,735 last year. Despite this additional demand, there were fewer hours lost to handover delays last week compared to the same time last year (13,881 vs 15,360).
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