'It’s one of the worst winters we've experienced': Inside A&E after busiest year on record

The pressures on the NHS continue as high cases of flu strain resources and staff report conditions similar to the height of the pandemic, as ITV News Health Correspondent Rebecca Barry explains

I’m watching the team of doctors and nurses in the emergency department at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield as they begin yet another incredibly busy shift.

There are currently 100 patients in A&E, but they only have 40 beds.

That means people have to be cared for in the corridors.

Some patients have been waiting more than 24 hours to be admitted.

Staff tell me that, in some ways, it’s more difficult than during the pandemic.

“It’s one of the worst winters we've experienced”, Emergency Department Consultant Dr Sarah Robertshaw tells me.

“For the last 12 months our entire team has been working exceptionally hard at pretty much full capacity, every day of the week.”

It comes as the number of people in hospital with flu in England continues to rise.

Data from NHS England shows more than 5,400 people a day were in hospital with flu last week, including 256 in critical care.

That’s nearly five times what it was at the start of last month, when the total stood at 1,098.

But it’s not just winter viruses - the cold weather is causing problems too.

On a trolley in a corridor I meet 79-year-old Jackie Speight, who fell on the ice outside her home and fractured a bone in her pelvic area.

She had to wait two hours for an ambulance and has been in this hallway waiting for a bed, since yesterday afternoon.

She tells me it’s been “awful”.

But it’s difficult for staff too.

“It’s not what any of us want to be doing” says Sarah Warrington, the Lead Nurse in Emergency Department.

“It’s tough. It’s obviously not the right thing for the patient, but we are still ensuring that they are receiving the absolute best care, even though it’s not in the place where we want to be caring for them.”

Outside the hospital there are several ambulances waiting to handover patients.

Across England last week 42% of patients arriving by ambulance at hospitals had to wait at least half an hour to be handed over – the highest figure so far this winter

Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.

And in December almost a third of patients in A&E had to wait more than four hours.

In fact, the data reveals that last year was the busiest on record for A&E and ambulance teams.

“Sometimes people are having to wait longer than any of us would want” says Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s National Medical Director

But he claims “the public can help” by only use emergency departments for life threatening conditions.

The government admits patients are receiving “unacceptable standards of care”, but warns that it will “take time to turn things around”.

Earlier this week, the prime minister announced his plan to tackle the waiting list for non-urgent treatment.

But some accuse the government of avoiding the immediate crisis in the emergency system.

Critics say they must get a grip of it, urgently.

Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode…