King’s College Hospital has the second lowest number of available beds of any hospital in London, as hospitals around the country struggle with high rates of winter illnesses, writes Kieran Galpin…
As of January 9th, 96.4% of beds were full at King’s College Hospital. That number meant it was in the bottom 20 hospitals in the country for available beds.
This statistic was for hospitals with 24-hour emergency critical care known as a type 1 A&E department. Guy’s and St Thomas’, in Waterloo and London Bridge, had a bed occupancy rate of 88.2% over the month of December.
“As with hospitals across the country, we are experiencing extremely high demand for our services,” the King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said.
As high demand hits an already stretched NHS, the Labour goverment says they are trying to improve English healthcare. However, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said on Tuesday that patients’ experiences of the NHS this winter made him feel “ashamed” and were “very distressing”.
One patient said he had waited 9 hours for treatment at A&E on Tuesday, January 7th. “It’s incredibly busy. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. He needed a bed in the specialist mental health unit, for which he had been told he had to wait four days.
“I can’t leave, or I’ll be kicked out of the queue,” he said, “I’ve been sleeping on a chair in the waiting room.”
“People are having to wait in the corridors.”
Another man, who had a long-term health condition and was referred to A&E because of a high temperature, was visibly upset when asked about his wait-time. “It’s distressing,” he said. He had already slept for two nights in waiting rooms, and had another two days to wait for a bed.
“It’s not the NHS I grew up in,” he said, “but I need the care”.
The NHS around the country is struggling to manage with particularly high cases of flu, alongside high cases of RSV and norovirus. There are also cases of Covid-19. Even before demand for hospitals rose over the winter, only 72% of patients were seen within four hours at A&Es across the country – significantly below their 95% target.
King’s College Hospital are also “limiting the number of visitors to help reduce the spread of infection, and “have reintroduced mask-wearing” in the Emergency Departments and some other areas.
The hospital asks people to stay away unless it is an emergency.
“To help us manage the number of patients who need our help, we urge people who are experiencing flu-like symptoms or diarrhoea and vomiting, to not visit our hospitals.
“Contact NHS 111 or visit your local pharmacy. Only attend the Emergency Department in an emergency,” said King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.