Figures out today show ambulances and A&E staff handed over patients more than seven minutes quicker last week (28:14) than the same week last year (35:36).

The number of ambulance handovers taking over 30 minutes was also down by more than a fifth (21.9%) compared with the same week last year.

Over 1.2m patients were handed over (1,234,731) to A&Es by ambulances so far this winter. This is the highest since the same period in 2021/22, and almost 52,000 (51,989) more than the equivalent period last year.

The number of patients in hospital with norovirus (924) was slightly down on last week (1,012) and the almost 19m (18.8m) flu vaccinations delivered this year have helped ensure the number of patients in hospital beds continues to fall this week to 682.

NHS national medical director Professor Meghana Pandit said: ‘Despite ever-increasing demand, especially on emergency care, it's fantastic to see that the hard work of NHS staff has continued to deliver improvements for patients this winter.

‘Ambulance crews are getting people into hospital faster, working with A&E staff so they can be treated sooner, and vaccination teams have helped reduce the number of cases of flu.

‘The public deserve credit too - from getting their jabs in ever increasing numbers, which has helped to ease spread of winter bugs, through to using more services in the community, where it's more appropriate than going straight to A&E.

‘It's really important this team effort continues as we see out another challenging winter.'