Almost 600,000 beds were taken up by patients with Covid, flu, RSV or norovirus this winter (594,937 from 25 November 2024 – 30 March 2025), as NHS services experienced a ‘quad-demic' of viruses.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England's national medical director, said: ‘This winter has been one of the toughest ever for staff and despite their heroic efforts, far too many patients waited too long for care.

‘While many of the initiatives rolled out this winter such as more virtual wards and same day emergency care services delivered improvements in getting patients the care they deserve – with fewer ambulance handover delays this winter - it's clear we need to accelerate our progress.

‘Despite the sunnier weather, Covid cases have jumped to the highest level this year, in a sign winter is not over yet for our staff.'

There were 1,174 patients in hospital with Covid last week – up by 11.9% on the week before and the highest since December.

Hospital capacity remains constrained, with 94.1% of adult beds occupied and a total of 90,475 adult patients in hospital each day.

Over 1.6m NHS bed days were lost to patients who were medically fit to leave hospital this winter.

Emergency services continue to respond to high levels of demand with 94,578 ambulance handovers last week, but time lost to ambulance handover delays was down 13% on the same period last year (16,205 hours vs 18,628).