Marina was one of 7,678 patients to arrive at the care of Royal Berkshire NHS Trust by ambulance so far this winter, where Sky News has spent the past few months speaking to patients, consultants and those responsible for running the hospital.
There are patients waiting to be transferred to the wards, and while we’ve been here in the last couple of minutes two more patients have been brought in by ambulance.
Each morning over the last few days we’ve been starting the day with another 20-30 patients in the emergency department waiting for beds, so the pressures are really significant.".
"Almost half of [our respiratory unit] has been given over for patients with flu - and we’ve got a lot of very unwell patients at the moment.
There used to be a bit of respite in summers, when more beds were free from winter virus patients and people could flow more quickly and easily through the system.
