News alert / Bed capacity increase
New figures published by NHS England show that, last week, hospitals across the country had an average of 99,750 core beds in place each day, up 2,000 since the start of the year, to cope with expected Covid and flu admissions. According to NHS England, the NHS has now achieved its urgent and emergency care recovery plan to increase the level of core beds by 5,000 compared to a 2022/23 baseline. Released data also shows the number of people in hospital with flu is the highest all winter – last week, 1,582 patients were in hospital with the virus, up 11% on the week before.
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