Frontline NHS staff 'under same pressure as at height of COVID pandemic'
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A&E NHS staff are under the same pressure as they were "during the height of the pandemic", a health chief has warned, as emergency departments have had their busiest year on record. NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis warned it was hard to quantify just "how tough it is for frontline staff at the moment".
He said some A&E staff were saying "their days at work feel like some of the days we had during the height of the pandemic". It comes as figures show that A&E departments and ambulance teams had their busiest year on record and flu continues to pile pressure on hospitals into the new year.
The number of flu patients in hospital in England continues to increase and is nearly five times the level it was at the start of December, NHS figures released on Thursday show. An average of 5,408 people with flu were in hospital beds in England each day last week, up 21% on the week prior, and higher than this point last winter or the winter before.
Meanwhile, there were 8.9 million incidents handled by ambulance teams in England overall last year, up from 8.35 million in 2023. Why are NHS hospitals declaring 'critical incidents'?. Obesity rates may start falling this year due to weight loss jabs, seller says.
Drinking coffee in the morning could reduce your risk of death and heart disease, study finds. The total number of A&E attendances in 2024 hit 27.4 million, with 2.35 million last month alone. In all but the most serious cases, ambulance waiting times were worse in December 2024 than in December 2023.
