He said he had also seen ambulance crews taking dying patients into hospital because there was no end-of-life care available for them in the community.

“It breaks my heart,” Streeting added.

Critical incidents were also declared in the East Midlands, Birmingham, Devon, Cornwall, Northamptonshire and Hampshire.

  • The East Midlands Ambulance Service – which covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire – declared the first critical incident in its history due to a combination of “significant patient demand, pressure within hospitals and flooding”

  • Health bosses have asked people suffering from flu, Covid, norovirus or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to stay away from the Royal Cornwall Hospital’s A&E department in Truro

  • An influx of patients at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth has also prompted a critical incident

  • Hampshire Hospitals said, due to “sustained pressures” at its Basingstoke and Winchester hospitals, it has also declared a critical incident

  • University Hospitals Birmingham is another trust to have declared a critical incident with an “exceptional number” of patients with flu requiring hospital admission

  • NHS services in Northamptonshire have also escalated their status to critical, due to what they say is ongoing demand, particularly at Northampton and Kettering general hospitals

Critical incidents, which can last for a few hours or several days, allow services to:

They are not unusual at this time of year – about 30 hospitals declared them at one point at the start of 2023.

But NHS bosses have said the first week of 2025 has been very difficult, as high rates of flu, combined with cold weather and flooding, have caused a surge in demand.

In Scotland, doctors said hospitals had become gridlocked and were in the middle of a “winter crisis” too.

Dr Fiona Hunter, from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “We are running on hard work and goodwill, and our patients are receiving unacceptable, undignified and unsafe care in corridors and in the back of ambulances.”



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