Revealed: the nine hospital trusts where covid patients fill at least half the beds

HSJ’s analysis also shows that two entire health systems — Kent and Medway and East London — have hit the 50 per cent mark.

Ten out of England’s 42 health systems (known as sustainability and transformation partnerships) now have covid-19 bed occupancy of 33 per cent or more. The same situation is affecting 31 of 126 general acute trusts (25 per cent). 

These findings are based on HSJ’s analysis of NHS internal figures for occupancy and total beds up to 5 January. It covers adult general and acute beds only — not intensive care, where covid pressure is also very high.

The nine trusts with 50 per cent plus occupancy include two — Whittington Health Trust and North Middlesex University Hospital Trusts — where covid occupancy is above 60 per cent. Both serve the north central London area.

The 10 health systems with at least 33 per cent include all five in London, and five in surrounding areas, stretching up to Bedfordshire in the Midlands. The trusts also include some outside the South East — two in Cheshire, one in Norfolk, and Portsmouth Hospitals Trust.

The figures for new covid cases in hospital (admissions with covid and those diagnosed in hospital) included in the tables below — as opposed to covid occupancy, which measures the number in hospital — show that in nearly all of the areas and trusts, the rate grew over the past seven days, meaning occupancy is very likely to keep increasing.

Trusts with estimated covid-19 occupancy of 33 per cent or greater:

Health systems (STPs) with estimated covid-19 occupancy of 33 per cent or more

Hospitals dealing with covid occupancy of more than 33 per cent are highly likely to be under serious operational pressure. However, this analysis cannot take full account of factors like cancelling elective care, extra beds opening or having to be closed, or the concentration of covid pressure at particular hospitals within multi-site trusts. Nor does it reflect the number of non-covid patients a trust is treating.