Flu season has peaked but NHS hospitals are still ‘jam-packed’ with 1 in 7 beds taken by fit patients

FLU season has peaked but hospitals are still “jam-packed” with one in seven beds taken by those fit to go home, the NHS says.

It comes after nurses said bed-blocking was leaving sick arrivals to die in corridors.

The number in hospital with flu is falling after reaching levels three times as high as last year.

The daily average dropped to 4,929 last week from 5,408 the week before.

Covid and norovirus patients took another 1,800 beds.

Officials said last week was their busiest of the winter, with 96 per cent of beds occupied – around 98,000.

Fourteen per cent are taken up by patients well enough to leave but with no care arrangements.

NHS England emergency care chief Prof Julian Redhead said: “Coupled with the cold snap and problems discharging patients, this means hospitals are jam-packed with patients even as more beds have been opened.”

A Royal College of Nursing report this week warned patients were dying in corridors and waiting rooms, with numbers treated outside medical areas at a high.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said “it will take time to turn the NHS around”.