Reaching crisis point: Nursing union warns hospitals are 'running out of beds and resources'
Click above to watch a video report by ITV News Anglia's Natalie Gray
As the third national lockdown begins, a nursing union has told ITV News Anglia that their members are frightened and at the limits of their physical and mental health.
The national alert level has been raised to Level 5, because health systems are under immense pressure.
There are currently 3,395 people in hospital in the east with coronavirus, that compares to 1,679 which was the highest number reached at the peak of the first wave in April 2020.
The intensive care unit at Milton Keynes University Hospital is at near capacity.
A 10% increase in Covid patients in just 24 hours means numbers are at more than 220. 60% of general beds are filled with COVID patients.
The Royal College of Nursing in the Eastern Region also say that staff and health care settings are close to being overwhelmed.
So much so that staff at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital have been asked to volunteer to work on critical care units because of shortages stating in an email that the pandemic was 'providing a staffing challenge across the Trust.' Staff from the minor injuries unit at Cromer Hospital have also been sent in to help.
It comes as hundreds of Best Western hotels in the East could be turned into 'cottage hospitals' to ease the strain of the pandemic on the NHS. The chain has offered to hand over as many as 500 of its inns to support the health service.
The pressure extends beyond the confines of hospitals. At the Prospect Medical Practice in Norwich today four of their seven doctors are off, having tested positive for Coronavirus. it has left the surgery operating reduced service for a short time.