Full hospitals: Health minister 'Focus needs to change'

Hospitals are "full to bursting" in England, creating a potentially dangerous environment for patients, an analysis by experts suggests.

Hospitals should run at about 85% capacity to give them room to cope with surges in demand, and figures show the NHS average hovering around that mark.

But the private research analysts Dr Foster said the figure was skewed by quiet periods and rose higher if they were stripped out.

Dr Dan Poulter MP, Health Minister told BBC Breakfast the big challenge for the NHS was to "focus the attention more on preventing people who don't need to be in hospital from being there in the first place".

  • Subsection
  • Published