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The NHS Confederation is warning that while Covid pressures appear to be easing, the health service is “still in for a very long winter”.
The news comes as the latest weekly winter data published by NHS England reveals that adult hospital bed occupancy was at 93.6% nationally, with 11 trusts reporting adult occupancy at over 98%.
These high numbers of bed occupancy are partly due to a lack of beds in the community, as the data reveals that, on average, 12,168 patients remained in hospital who no longer met the criteria to reside there.
While this is down from nearly 12,400 the previous week, it still means over half (56%) of medically fit patients who are fit to be discharged remained in hospital on an average day.
Pressures on the NHS have not been helped by staff absences, with 62,777 staff unable to come into work on an average day, with around a third (34%) of these absences due to Covid-related reasons.
Ambulance arrivals remain high too, with 85,513 in the week up to 13 February, the second busiest week this winter (although this is below pre-pandemic levels in the equivalent week).
The pressures “affect the NHS’s ability to work effectively”
Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said given the intense pressures the NHS is still facing, a detailed workforce plan is now needed to ensure the health service can keep up with demand.
She said: “The NHS is committed to recovering services that were scaled down because of the pandemic but its capacity is stretched, particularly given nearly 63,000 staff in acute trusts were absent on an average day, with 34 percent due to Covid-19 related reasons.
“On top of that, trusts are contending with around 93,000 vacancies. These pressures are all connected and they affect the NHS’s ability to work as effectively as it could.
“Given that an ambitious recovery and reform agenda has been set for the NHS, we now need a proper workforce plan to match that vision.”