Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

Senior staff nurse Greg Kite spoke to me a little earlier this morning after finishing his 12-hour night shift working in the resus areas of Royal Free’s A&E. This is for the most seriously unwell patients who need close monitoring.

“It was pretty busy – in resus we had to provide care to 12 patients. But there was good flow through the rest of the departments, although in the minors side there were nine-hour waits to see a doctor.”

Some of his patients had conditions such as heart failure, which was causing breathing difficulties, as well as two patients who staff were worried could develop sepsis, a potentially life-threatening immune reaction to an infection.

“We are on alert for that. We quickly carry out tests because any delays treating can have serious consequences.”

Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

More now from the new figures from NHS England.

It shows an average of 14,087 beds were taken up by patients who were medically fit for discharge each day last week, the highest so far this winter.

That's around one in seven.

The previous week it was 13,776.

But, on planned treatment waiting lists, the overall backlog has dropped again, from 7.48 million to 7.46 million, while the estimated number of patients waiting is down from 6.28 million to 6.24 million.

The proportion waiting less than 18 weeks was 58.9%, up from 56.6% in December 2023.

The number waiting more than a year is now 2.7% of the waiting list, the lowest proportion since August 2020.

The Royal Free Hospital is currently running under its full capacity protocol.

One patient has been waiting for 24 hours to get a ward bed.

Take a look inside:

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

We’ve just received an update from Peter Hollely, the senior matron in A&E.

He says the unit is full, there’s no cubicles free now and they have 20 patients waiting for a bed on a ward.

“It will not take much to tip us over. We’ve not yet been forced to start corridor care, but it could happen.”

This was something that the Royal College of Nursing recently warned about with hospitals across the country being forced to set up make-shift areas for patients.

Peter has just come from a hospital-wide meeting with senior staff where they had discussed the pressures across the site.

“We had a busy day yesterday – nearly 400 patients came into the emergency department and that has had a knock-on impact today.”

There are a number of patients who have been moved away from A&E and placed in what is known as a boarding situation. This means they are in treatment rooms and side rooms outside wards waiting for a bed to become free.

“It’s about balancing risk,” he says.

“It’s not ideal, but it means we can relieve some of the pressure in the emergency department.”

We will be checking back in with Peter throughout the day.

Hugh Pym
Health editor, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

A quick read of the latest NHS England stats shows overall waiting just for planned treatment fell in December for the 4th month in a row to 7.46 million - the peak was 7.7 million in 2023.

While we let out correspondents pore over the newly-released waiting time figures from NHS England, let's bring you some comments that Peter Landstrom, group chief executive of Royal Free London NHS Foundation trust, made in the last hour.

Landstrom says the biggest challenges the trust is facing are demand on the emergency department, long waiting lists, and the growing number of cancer patients.

Coping with these demands "whilst also trying to think differently" and create innovations - "that balance is probably the most tricky thing", he tells the BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

On AI, he says it has "huge potential" to transform how NHS patients and staff interact.

"The heart of the NHS is its people," Landstrom says, and they give everything they can, but they work very hard.

AI can therefore be used to "improving our productivity and our efficiency", Landstrom explains.

He gives the example that AI can plan treatments for a patient in one hour, as opposed to the eight it would take a consultant.

The NHS have just published the newest statistics on patient waiting times for the winter period.

We’re now taking a look at the figures. Stick with us as we bring you the key takeaways.

Image source, Family handout

A BBC Breakfast viewer, Louise, has sent through an image from a hospital in North West England.

Louise says her 88-year-old nan Maureen was admitted on Monday and has been in a corridor in A&E for more than 50 hours despite being on the priority list.

We're following up on her story and will have more details soon.

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

The number of patients waiting more than 12 hours for a bed on a ward after being seen in A&E in England was 19 times higher this winter than it was before the pandemic, figures show.

There were nearly 100,000 12-hour waits in December and January - compared with slightly more than 5,000 in 2019-20.

A decade ago these waits were virtually unheard of - in the four winters up to 2013-14 there were fewer than 100.

The King's Fund said long delays were at risk of becoming normalised.

It said the pressures this winter had received little attention compared with last winter, despite no significant improvement in performance.

During December 2023 and January 2024, 98,300 patients waited more than 12 hours for a bed on a ward after A&E doctors took the decision to admit them.

These tend to be the sickest and frailest patient - and this wait comes after they have already waited to be seen in the first place after arriving at A&E.

Your Voice, Your BBC News was launched to give our audience – you – more of a say in what we cover and to be part of the news.

Health and the NHS are consistently among of the top topics you want to talk about, making up around one in ten of the responses we get.

Among them, hospital services - from waiting times for referrals to the care patients receive - regularly come up as concern.

We want you to tell us your experiences of hospitals - good as well as bad - whether you are a patient or an NHS staff member.

You can email bbcyourvoice@bbc.co.uk, WhatsApp +44 7980 682727 or click here.

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

Image source, PA Media

The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, says the crisis in the NHS stems from issues within the social care system.

“The scenes in hospitals this winter have been frankly horrifying, with patients dying in corridors and staff at breaking point. This crisis stems from a broken social care system, with thousands stuck in hospital beds because they can’t get the care they need," he tells me.

"It is bitterly disappointing that the government has kicked the can down the road on social care yet again.

“We need to see the government’s social care review finished within a year at the most, this winter has shown patients cannot afford to wait another three years for action.”

Dr Khai Lee Cheah, a consultant who works with geriatric patients at the hospital, says the hospital can be under "a lot of pressure" as the discharge of healthy patients has been "quite challenged".

She gives the example of an 84-year-old man, who had his door broken in by the fire brigade when he needed medical care. He can't go home now because the door isn't fixed yet, and so he is taking up a bed.

Cheah says issues like this are "not uncommon", and access complexities often crop up.

She says it can be challenging at the hospital, but "we all do our best to ensure that they [patients] get compassionate and good care and that they go home when they are ready to go home".

Looking to the future, she says "things are challenging but they're not bleak".

Image source, Reuters

Before 2024’s General Election, Labour said that "as a first step", they would deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans and appointments a week in England - two million a year. The plan represented an increase of less than 2%.

Labour’s manifesto also said they would "use spare capacity in the independent sector to ensure patients are diagnosed and treated more quickly".

Among other pledges, they promised to "double the number of CT and MRI scanners" and, in dentistry in England, "provide 700,000 extra appointments each year".

In December, Labour reaffirmed its plan to have 92% of patients begin hospital treatment or be given the all clear within 18 weeks, by the end of this parliament (2029).

This has been an official NHS target for some time but has not been met since 2015. Currently, around 60% of patients meet the 18-week target.

As a reminder, new NHS data is coming out after 09:30 GMT - we’ll go through it all on this page.

Hugh Pym
Health editor, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

Head of NHS England Amanda Pritchard has told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that private investment in NHS buildings and equipment may be required.

In comments which go further than before she said: “We need to think much more radically, particularly about capital.

"So I think we now must consider private capital investment in the NHS because if we don’t fix our buildings, if we don’t fix our technology we’re not going to get to a place where we can really drive that long term improvement," she told the programme.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, says the secretary of state has been clear "there are not overnight fixes" for the NHS, but she is "hugely pleased" that work has been commissioned into social care.

We brought you some of her comments earlier, but now speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she says "rather than doing something fast, actually the most important thing is to do it right".

The government has announced that Louise Casey has been appointed to head an independent commission into reforming social care.

On funding, "we take the responsibility to spend public money wisely very seriously," Pritchard says. "We need to make absolute best of the money that we've got."

But to provide high quality care, they need "high quality buildings" and technology, she says.

However, she adds, they cannot keep asking the government for more state funding, and "now must consider private capital investment in the NHS".

Eleanor Shearwood
BBC Newsbeat reporter, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

We've been invited to Queen Mary's House at the Royal Free London - where under 18s with eating disorders are treated.

Eva's 17 and has had anorexia for four years but tells BBC Newsbeat she "definitely sees a future without it”.

The team aim to keep patients like Eva mainly in the community, so they can hold onto as much of their normal lives as possible.

"I've come a long way, and while I feel like I've got a lot further to go, it's definitely not something you have to live with for the rest of your life."

Before, Eva says she was "very cold all the time, really tired... so focused on food and exercise that I didn't really speak to anyone".

But now, she feels “enthusiastic for things again… like I can go horse riding, which I wasn't allowed to do when I was really ill”.

As for what she wants people to understand about the condition?

"It's a lot more complex than it may seem. There's a lot more going on inside.”

Pritchard says the longest waits for care have reduced "really significantly over the last couple of years."

The number of people waiting a year has shrunk by over 50%, she tells BBC News.

NHS England is committed to getting to the 18-week target "by the end of this parliament".

There are no immediate quick fixes to these challenges, Pritchard continues.

She says more care and treatment needs to be carried out in the community rather than in hospitals to reduce demand.

Pritchard points to virtual wards as an example of care that can happen outside the hospital, "so people don't have to come to hospital unless they really need to".

"There is a lot more do to," she says.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, tells BBC Breakfast that she has seen rising demand "absolutely play out" this winter, with 7% more patients coming into A&E a day compared with the previous year.

That's 5,000 people a day, Pritchard says.

She adds that they have seen a "really challenged social care system", pointing to some of the healthy patients in the Royal Free London NHS trust unable to be discharged - we heard earlier there are 275 across the trust waiting to be discharged.

"And of course, we have had a once-in-a-century pandemic to contend with," Pritchard adds.

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

It is early morning and already the A&E department at the Royal Free Hospital is busy.

There are nearly 80 patients there. On a normal day the unit will get between 350 and 400 arrivals – most can be treated in A&E, but around one in five will need to be admitted on to a ward for further treatment.

Along with the urgency and emergency units at the other three hospitals that form part of the wider Royal Free London NHS Trust, latest figures show 22% of patients spend longer than four hours in A&E. That, though, is still better than the national average.