This monthly publication will feature a compilation of NHS England's weekly sitreps up to and inclusive of the data published on 20 February 2025.
Key points
- General and acute bed occupancy in hospitals has remained high at 94.1% at the start of February.
- Almost 1.1 million patients arrived at hospital by ambulance so far this winter – an increase of 21% compared to the same period last year.
- The number of hospital beds occupied by flu patients continues to fall and was lower than last winter for the first time this year at the end of January.
- Over 1,400 beds were closed this week due to diarrhoea and vomiting (D&V) and norovirus – a record high.
Winter illnesses
- The latest figures show that general and acute hospital beds occupied by flu patients have declined in the first and second week of February and are now a fifth lower than the same period last year. Although, in comparison to 2022-23, flu rates are 2.8 times higher (see figure 12).
- Latest data by UKHSA reported that the overall weekly hospital admission rate for influenza decreased to 4.6 per 100,000 compared with 5.18 per 100,000 in the previous week.
Figure 12
Average daily number of general and acute beds occupied by flu patients
- Paediatric beds closed to RSV have gradually fallen since the start of the year. However, in the latest week, beds closed have increased to 59- 2.4 times higher than last year.
- The number of beds closed due to D&V and norovirus reached a record high of 1,443 in the second week of February. This is 29% higher than the previous week.
- The number of beds occupied by Covid-19 patients increased by 3% to 984 in the second week of February.
- Staff absences appear to be steadily declining but are still 8% higher than the same period in 2023/24.
- NHS teams have delivered over 29.6 million flu, Covid-19 and RSV vaccinations to date this winter.
A&E, ambulance arrivals and handovers
As highlighted in our acute and ambulance section, urgent and emergency care services continue to experience high demand which is also reflected in the winter sitrep data:
- So far this winter, there have been a total of 434 A&E diverts – 1.6 times higher than the same period last year.
- A total of 90,964 patients arrived at hospital by ambulance in the second week of February. This takes the total so far this winter to almost 1.1 million patients - 2% higher than the same period last winter and a fifth more than two years ago.
- In the latest week, over 18,600 hours were lost to handover delays, an increase of 7.3% compared to the previous week but down by a fifth compared to the same time last year. So far this winter, almost 340,800 hours have been lost to handover delays beyond 30 minutes, an increase of 10% compared to the same point last year.
Figure 13
Cumulative number of hours lost to ambulance handover delays beyond 30 minutes
Bed occupancy and capacity
Bed occupancy remains high in February which is continuing to impact patient flow.
- In the first two weeks of February, general and acute bed occupancy in hospitals remained at 94.1% This is a similar rate to the same time last year, when the bed occupancy rate was 94% (see figure 14).
- The average number of patients waiting to be discharged and the number remaining in hospital though they were fit to be discharged continued to rise in recent weeks. In the second week of February, 59.1% of patients fits to be discharged remained in hospital – equivalent to one in seven beds a day taken up by a patients fit to be discharged.
FIGURE 14
General and acute bed occupancy (%)
To interact with our winter analysis and make comparisons with the latest data to previous years, please view our winter watch dashboard.