Latest NHS hospital figures show flu patients rise by 21% across England - see figures for each health trust

NHS England has published its latest monthly performance data for hospitals, along with this week’s snapshot of winter virus levels and A&E pressures.

The data includes the number of flu patients being treated at each NHS trust across England which have been listed in the bottom section of this story.

Here are the key figures from both reports:

An average of 5,408 flu patients were in hospital in England each day in the week to January 5, including 256 in critical care.

This is up 21% from 4,469 the previous week, when 211 were in critical care.

It is nearly five times the number on December 1, when the total stood at 1,098.

The figure is much higher than at this point last winter, when the average was just 1,548.

It is also higher than at this stage two years ago in the winter of 2022/23, when the figure stood at 5,262 – although flu numbers had started to fall by then, having previously peaked at 5,441.

An average of 626 hospital beds were filled each day last week by patients with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms.

This is up from 528 the previous week and higher than the equivalent figure at this point last winter (424) and two years ago (435).

The number of hospital beds occupied each day last week by patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 averaged 1,130, down week-on-week from 1,184.

There were an average of 72 children with RSV in hospital wards in England last week, down very slightly from 74 the previous week but higher than at this point last winter (49) and two years ago (63).

A total of 42.2% of patients arriving by ambulance at hospitals in England last week waited at least 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams – the highest figure so far this winter.

It is up from 32.1% the previous week, and higher than in the equivalent week last winter, when the proportion stood at 30.9%.

Some 21.3% of ambulance handovers last week, or 19,554 patients, were delayed by more than an hour: again, the highest figure so far this winter, up week-on-week from 12.9% and higher than this point a year ago (13.4%).

The waiting list for routine hospital treatment in England has fallen to its lowest level for 18 months.

An estimated 7.48 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of November, relating to 6.28 million patients – down from 7.54 million treatments and 6.34 million patients at the end of October.

These are the lowest figures since May 2023.

The list hit a record high in September 2023, with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.

The size of the list has been on an upwards trend for much of the last 10 years, passing three million treatments in 2014, four million in 2017, five million in 2021 and seven million in 2022.

In February 2020, the last full month before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the list stood at 4.57 million treatments.

Some 2,051 patients had been waiting more than 18 months to start routine treatment at the end of November, down from 2,446 in October.

The previous government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than 18 months by April 2023, excluding exceptionally complex cases or patients who choose to wait longer.

There were 16,904 patients who had been waiting more than 65 weeks to start treatment at the end of November, down from 20,930 in October.

The target to eliminate all waits of more than 65 weeks was September 2024.

Meanwhile, 221,889 people had been waiting more than 52 weeks to start routine hospital treatment at the end of November, down from 234,885 at the end of October and the lowest number since November 2020.

The previous government and NHS England set the ambition of eliminating all waits of more than a year by March 2025.

There were 54,207 people who had to wait more than 12 hours in A&E departments in December from a decision to admit to actually being admitted, up from 45,791 in November.

The record high for a calendar month is 54,573, which occurred in December 2022.

The number waiting at least four hours from the decision to admit to admission also rose, standing at 154,689 in December, up from 140,782 in November.

Some 71.1% of patients in England were seen within four hours in A&Es last month, down from 72.1% in November.

The NHS recovery plan set a target of March 2024 for 76% of patients attending A&E to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.

A further target of 78% has been set for March 2025.

A total of 77.4% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days in November 2024.

This is up from 77.1% the previous month and is above the target of 75%.

The proportion of patients who had waited no longer than 62 days in November from an urgent suspected cancer referral, or consultant upgrade to their first definitive treatment for cancer, was 69.4%, up from 68.2% in October.

The target is 85%.

GPs in England made 259,563 urgent cancer referrals in November, down from 279,063 in October and down year-on-year from 270,549 in November 2023.

Number of flu patients in hospital in England, by NHS trust

Here is a list showing the latest available data for the number of flu patients in hospital for each NHS trust in England.

The figures have been published by NHS England.

The list is arranged alphabetically and reads, from left to right: name of NHS trust; average number of flu patients per day in the week ending January 5 2025; average number (in brackets) of flu patients per day in the preceding week ending December 29 2024.

Airedale 29 (17)

Alder Hey Children’s 10 (8)

Ashford & St Peter’s Hospitals 38 (22)

Barking, Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals 35 (33)

Barnsley Hospital 31 (28)

Barts Health 24 (23)

Bedfordshire Hospitals 0 (0)

Birmingham Women’s & Children’s 4 (5)

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals 47 (33)

Bolton 39 (29)

Bradford Teaching Hospitals 27 (24)

Buckinghamshire Healthcare 23 (22)

Calderdale & Huddersfield 54 (53)

Cambridge University Hospitals 12 (8)

Chelsea & Westminster Hospital 43 (30)

Chesterfield Royal Hospital 29 (32)

Christie 0 (0)

Clatterbridge Cancer Centre 0 (0)

Countess of Chester Hospital 43 (39)

County Durham & Darlington 88 (72)

Croydon Health Services 49 (37)

Dartford & Gravesham 33 (23)

Doncaster & Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals 32 (35)

Dorset County Hospital 23 (11)

Dudley Group 13 (10)

East & North Hertfordshire 32 (22)

East Cheshire 15 (20)

East Kent Hospitals University 27 (18)

East Lancashire Hospitals 54 (50)

East Suffolk & North Essex 89 (69)

East Sussex Healthcare 34 (7)

Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals 44 (34)

Frimley Health 80 (89)

Gateshead Health 0 (0)

George Eliot Hospital 0 (0)

Gloucestershire Hospitals 47 (26)

Great Ormond Street Hospital For Children 6 (2)

Great Western Hospitals 0 (0)

Guy’s & St Thomas’ 37 (28)

Hampshire Hospitals 34 (45)

Harrogate & District 9 (8)

Hillingdon Hospitals 44 (35)

Homerton Healthcare 22 (20)

Hull University Teaching Hospitals 117 (106)

Imperial College Healthcare 0 (0)

Isle of Wight 23 (20)

James Paget University Hospitals 35 (28)

Kettering General Hospital 0 (0)

King’s College Hospital 56 (51)

Kingston Hospital 9 (9)

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals 28 (24)

Leeds Teaching Hospitals 89 (75)

Lewisham & Greenwich 74 (52)

Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital 0 (0)

Liverpool University Hospitals 77 (52)

Liverpool Women’s 0 (0)

London North West University Healthcare 0 (0)

Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells 43 (20)

Manchester University 174 (138)

Medway 11 (19)

Mersey & West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals 45 (46)

Mid & South Essex 120 (64)

Mid Cheshire Hospitals 27 (21)

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals 45 (34)

Milton Keynes University Hospital 30 (30)

Moorfields Eye Hospital 0 (0)

Newcastle Upon Tyne 53 (45)

Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals 69 (45)

North Bristol 44 (26)

North Cumbria Integrated Care 50 (47)

North Tees & Hartlepool 44 (56)

North West Anglia 62 (47)

Northampton General Hospital 14 (18)

Northern Care Alliance 0 (0)

Northern Lincolnshire & Goole 75 (54)

Northumbria Healthcare 137 (114)

Nottingham University Hospitals 83 (79)

Oxford University Hospitals 65 (60)

Portsmouth Hospitals University 59 (29)

Princess Alexandra Hospital 26 (22)

Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn 31 (20)

Queen Victoria Hospital 0 (0)

Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital 0 (0)

Rotherham 0 (0)

Royal Berkshire 32 (39)

Royal Cornwall Hospitals 33 (21)

Royal Devon University Healthcare 93 (61)

Royal Free London 80 (n/a)*

Royal Marsden 8 (3)

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital 0 (0)

Royal Orthopaedic Hospital 0 (1)

Royal Papworth Hospital 0 (0)

Royal Surrey County Hospital 43 (32)

Royal United Hospitals Bath 41 (20)

Royal Wolverhampton 42 (40)

Salisbury 30 (18)

Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals 21 (14)

Sheffield Children’s 5 (7)

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals 114 (110)

Sherwood Forest Hospitals 34 (27)

Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital 46 (46)

Somerset 55 (53)

South Tees Hospitals 43 (42)

South Tyneside & Sunderland 113 (107)

South Warwickshire 7 (19)

St George’s University Hospitals 0 (0)

Stockport 27 (23)

Surrey & Sussex Healthcare 0 (0)

Tameside & Glossop Integrated Care 10 (4)

Torbay & South Devon 0 (0)

United Lincolnshire Hospitals 38 (39)

University College London Hospitals 29 (33)

University Hospital Southampton 61 (44)

University Hospitals Birmingham 326 (311)

University Hospitals Bristol & Weston 28 (29)

University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire 76 (60)

University Hospitals Dorset 53 (45)

University Hospitals of Derby & Burton 35 (49)

University Hospitals of Leicester 78 (34)

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay 41 (31)

University Hospitals of North Midlands 102 (103)

University Hospitals Plymouth 2 (1)

University Hospitals Sussex 127 (69)

Walsall Healthcare 42 (59)

Walton Centre 0 (0)

Warrington & Halton Teaching Hospitals 7 (5)

West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals 54 (38)

West Suffolk 37 (28)

Whittington Health 21 (17)

Wirral University Teaching Hospital 42 (18)

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals 105 (92)

Wrightington, Wigan & Leigh 8 (3)

Wye Valley 23 (23)

York & Scarborough Teaching Hospitals 80 (56)

*Royal Free London merged with North Middlesex University Hospitals on January 1 2025, so there is no comparable data for the previous week.