NHS England reports that over 40,000 bed days were lost due to Norovirus in February, piling pressure on hospitals across the country.
The latest data shows there were 1,094 patients a day in hospital with norovirus during the last week of February, down slightly on the week before (1,134) but more than double the number of patients compared to the same period last year (470 w/e March 3, 2024).
Hospital staff needed to close an additional 273 unoccupied beds due to infection prevention and control, adding to pressures on capacity and meaning the NHS lost a total of 43,938 bed days to Norovirus alone last month.
Hospitals are facing sustained pressure from a mix of winter viruses, including flu and Covid 19. The impact is being felt among the workforce too, with nearly 50,000 staff absences each day during the last week of February – that’s 8% higher than the same week in 2024.
Discharge delays
This pressure resulted in a slight increase in bed occupancy across the country with 95.6% of adult beds taken up. Almost one in seven beds were taken up by patients who no longer needed to be there (13,430) with almost half of those patients having been in hospital for more than three weeks, because of delays discharging patients to settings like social or community care.
Ambulance teams lost 22,863 hours due to handover delays, an increase of two thirds when compared to the same week in 2024 (13,881) in part due to bed occupancy pressures.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting has recognised the efforts of staff, saying: “I want to thank NHS staff for their tireless work in the face of winter pressures and, while the latest figures point to slight easing in certain areas, the health service remains under considerable strain.”
The latest weekly winter data is available on the NHS England website.
