Four hospitals comprising of three trusts had no spare beds this week as the NHS winter crisis continued to bite.
Hospitals in west London ran out of beds for patients this week as the NHS winter crisis continued to bite.
All the acute and general beds – more than 1,000 - at Uxbridge, Mount Vernon, Chelsea and Westminster, and West Middlesex Hospitals were reported to be full or closed due to norovirus on Sunday (Jan 4) at 9am.
The London North West Healthcare NHS Trust, which looks after hospitals in Ealing, Harrow and Brent boroughs including Ealing and St Mark’s Hospitals, narrowly avoided the same fate, having a spare 24 beds out of a total of more than a thousand.
The figures by NHS England come at a time when hospitals in the area are being pushed to breaking point.
Earlier this month the we reported that A&E units were struggling to accept patients brought in by paramedics, with the number being forced to wait in the ambulance for more than 30 minutes rocketing. And this week it was revealedseveral hospital trusts were missing A&E waiting time targets .
Many believe the nationwide problem is being exacerbated in west London because of the closures last year of A&E units at Hammersmith and Central Middlesex hospitals.
A statement from West Middlesex Trust said it had a robust winter plan in place and would work closely with partner organisations.
A spokesperson said: "Over the past few months we have seen an overall increase in demand in all our emergency services. This is something we would normally expect at this time of year and the trend is no different to previous years, although the scale of the increase in activity is higher than expected."
Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Uxbridge and Mount Vernon Hospitals, and the Chelsea and Westminster Trust are expected to comment soon.
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