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

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Nine English NHS trusts now have at least half their adult acute beds occupied by covid-positive patients, with admissions still growing in every case.

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:

Trust name	Current estimated covid-19 occupancy in adult G&A beds	Change in seven-day rolling covid admissions (new cases) over past seven days
Whittington Health NHS Trust	63%	+ 52%
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust	63%	+ 23%
Medway NHS Foundation Trust	57%	+ 35%
Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust	54%	+ 63%
Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	54%	+ 29%
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust	53%	+ 55%
Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	52%	+ 39%
Croydon Health Services NHS Trust	50%	+ 13%
Barts Health NHS Trust	50%	+ 35%
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust	49%	+ 14%
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust	49%	+ 25%
The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust	47%	+ 87%
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust	46%	+ 36%
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust	45%	+ 42%
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust	45%	+ 26%
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	45%	+ 27%
Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	44%	+ 36%
East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust	44%	-17%
The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	44%	+ 2%
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust	43%	+ 69%
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	41%	+ 106%
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust	40%	+ 59%
Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	39%	+ 47%
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	39%	+ 28%
London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust	38%	+ 102%
East Cheshire NHS Trust	37%	+ 76%
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust	37%	+ 4%
Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust	36%	0%
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust	35%	+ 40%
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust	34%	+ 63%
St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	34%	+ 62%

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

STP	Current estimated covid-19 occupancy in adult G&A beds	Change in seven-day rolling covid admissions (new cases) over past seven days
Kent and Medway	50.7%	+ 31.1%
East London	50.0%	+ 22.8%
Mid and South Essex	48.6%	+ 25.1%
North Central London	46.4%	+ 41.8%
Frimley Health	44.8%	+ 23.6%
Hertfordshire and West Essex	42.9%	+ 66.7%
South West London	40.7%	+ 40.7%
South East London	38.9%	+ 56.6%
Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes	38.4%	+ 26.9%
North West London	35.3%	+ 37.7%

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.