'We are absolutely full': This hospital is outperforming most - but it is still on its knees

Marina Strange is 90 and lives alone. She had a heart attack last week, her third in two years. It took two hours for an ambulance to reach her. Marina was impressed.

"I was surprised the ambulance came within two hours. I thought that was very good," she told Sky News.

Marina was one of 8,449 patients to arrive at the care of Royal Berkshire NHS Trust by ambulance so far this winter, where Sky News has spent the past few months speaking to patients, consultants and those responsible for running the hospital.

Chief Executive Steve McManus said:

"Our ward occupancy at the moment is running around 99% of our beds, so we are absolutely full," he said.

"Almost half of [our respiratory unit] has been given over for patients with flu - and we’ve got a lot of very unwell patients at the moment. Each morning over the last few days we’ve been starting the day with another 20-30 patients in the emergency department waiting for beds, so the pressures are really significant."

Dr Omar Mafousi, the clinical lead at the hospital explains how a lack of beds in the main hospital affects the emergency care his team can provide.

“We say every year it gets a little worse. This year has felt worse than any other year that I remember and I’ve been a consultant for 15 years in emergency medicine.

“We can’t [have patients in A&E long term]. We’ve only got 20 major cubicles but 25 waiting for a bed. Some are on chairs, some are in the waiting room, but we have no space to bring patients off an ambulance to see and examine them.”

“Almost every single bay is full, there’s just one free at the moment. There are patients waiting to be transferred to the wards, and while we’ve been here in the last couple of minutes two more patients have been brought in by ambulance. Things in the emergency department change very very quickly”.

Read full story

Source: Sky News, 13 February 2025

Related reading on the hub:

• How corridor care in the NHS is affecting safety culture: A blog by Claire Cox
• Reflections on a clinical shift: "After 20 years of nursing, this is one of the worst shifts I have ever completed"
• A silent safety scandal: A nurse’s first-hand account of a corridor nursing shift