Nine in ten NHS trusts breached safety limits on patients this winter – with one in three 95 per cent full
Experts warned lives were put at risk as new figures reveal shocking truth of swamped wards during recent months
NINE in 10 NHS trusts have been dangerously full during this winter, an investigation reveals.
Wards should never be more than 85 per cent occupied.
This is to give staff time to clean beds, keep infections down and be able to move patients quickly.
But figures obtained by the BBC show 137 out of 152 hospital trusts have breached this safety limit since December.
And more than one in three were over 95 per cent full.
Experts warn swamped wards put lives at risk.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the lack of hospital beds was “extremely worrying”.
He said: “Above 85 per cent and the risks start rising and once you get into the 90 per cent it is significant.
“You don’t get this in other countries and it just shows the pressure hospitals are under.”
NHS figures reveal in late January, 95.2 per cent of hospital beds were occupied across the service.
Andrew Foster, who runs three hospitals for the Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust, said the winter crisis has been “the worst I’ve known”.
He said: “It started from Boxing Day onwards. Cubicles in A&E were full, we had ambulance staff queuing in the corridors and we could not get patients out of hospital.
“The whole system backed up.”
It comes as record numbers of sick Brits had their life-saving operations cancelled last year.
Postponed cases include urgent procedures such as heart surgery and cancer treatment.
Data from NHS England shows 4,093 urgent operations were cancelled in 2016 – up 27 per cent in two years. In 2014, the number was 3,216.
More than half of patients think NHS care has deteriorated in the last six months.
And a poll of more than 1,000 adults for the BBC also reveals three-quarters of Brits want charges increased for overseas visitors using the NHS to help better fund services.
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NHS England said rising bed-blocking and problems with social care means crowded wards are here to stay.
A spokesman said: “For many years our hospitals have been using their beds intensively, rather than leaving 15 per cent of them empty, and in practice this is likely to continue.
“85 per cent is not a maximum figure, but an ideal level at which hospitals operate most efficiently in terms of flow through the system and a point which helps us deal with the surges in demand that we see over the winter period.”