Exclusive: Analysis of NHS data shows rise in patients ‘stranded’ in beds as flu crisis hits and resident doctors’ strikes loom

Hospitals in England face dangerous overcrowding this winter because even more patients than last year are “stranded” in a bed, according to an analysis of NHS figures.

The findings come as the health service struggles to cope with the early onset of its usual winter crisis driven by a crippling “flu-nami” and the NHS in England is bracing itself for a five-day strike by resident doctors starting on Wednesday.

The percentage of bed days used by patients whose discharge was delayed rose from 10.1% in 2024 to 11% this year, an increase of 9% or 19,000 bed days.

That rise was driven by an 8% year-on-year rise in the number of discharges, equivalent to about 3,800 patients a month.

The number of the NHS’s overall stock of about 100,000 general and acute beds occupied last winter by delayed discharge patients hit a peak of 14%, but it is likely to be even higher this winter.

Rate rises by 19% compared with 2020, prompting fresh concerns about NHS maternity care

The risk of women in England suffering severe bleeding after giving birth has risen to its highest level for five years, prompting fresh concern about NHS maternity care.

The rate at which mothers in England experience postpartum haemorrhage has increased from 27 per 1,000 births in 2020 to 32 per 1,000 this year, a rise of 19%.

BMA puts health secretary’s offer, which includes pledge to double number of extra training places, to resident doctors

Wes Streeting has made an improved offer to end the long-running dispute with resident doctors before their strike next week that threatens to bring chaos to the NHS as it battles a flu surge.

The health secretary has pledged to double the number of extra places that early career doctors in England can apply for in order to train in the area of medicine they have chosen to specialise in.