Vicki Loader
BBC News, reporting from Chase Farm Hospital

We are at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, north London – part of the Royal Free Hospital Trust – which is their centre for planned surgery. The hospital is key to getting down the waiting list for scheduled procedures like orthopaedics and ear, nose and throat procedures.

Here, they have what's called a barn operating theatre -and it's key to Chase Farm getting those waiting lists down.

From the outside a barn operating theatre looks like four normal operating theatres, side by side. But inside they are open to each other – divided only by transparent screens.

Up to four operations can be happening simultaneously and they allow surgeons to communicate to one other, such as if they need a second opinion.

There are only a few barn theatres across the country. And the trust is very proud of it’s state-of-the-art set up.

Waits for hospital treatment in England have been increasing, as the graph below shows.

As we've seen from our reporting this morning, spending on health has increased, with roughly £1 in every £3 spent on health.

But we have also seen that the 18-week wait target is not being met in England or at the Royal Free Hospital in London, where we are reporting from today.

Image source, .

Your Voice, Your BBC News
Emily Doughty

Image source, Handout

Steven Forster, the sole carer for his 81 year old Mum, tells us that the care she received at the Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield was “absolutely outstanding”.

Speaking to Your Voice, Your BBC News he says: “We often are given the perception that the NHS is broken but that’s not what we saw. The system and process were connected and working with amazing hardworking staff”.

Even after leaving hospital, Steven says his Mum’s care has continued to be “fantastic”.

"Everyone has been incredibly kind and compassionate. I have every faith in the NHS”.

Vicki Loader
BBC News, reporting from Chase Farm hospital

Chase Farm Hospital in North London is a specialist hub for elective or planned surgery within the Royal Free trust.

We caught up with Janet Gibbs who was about to be given an anaesthetic ahead of an ankle operation.

She said she was “nervous” as you can “never be sure what is going to happen”.

Janet first noticed problems with her ankle about 18 months ago. She cannot easily wear shoes and struggles to leave the house.

She was told she needed surgery and has been on the waiting list for about six months, although she was offered an earlier operation that she couldn’t make.

“It’s been a fairly smooth process, it’s not life-threatening so I was prepared to wait for a bit,” she told us.

Our reporters at the Royal Free Hospital say that today, the A&E department is already under significant pressure.

There's no space left, and some patients are waiting for a bed.

Today's NHS England statistics show that this isn't just a problem here.

The goal of 95% of patients being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours isn't being met at the Royal Free or overall.

Both the Royal Free and NHS England as a whole are sitting at 73%.

Your Voice, Your BBC News
Bobbi Huyton

Image source, Handout

Lucy Russell, 31, says that her 4-day-old baby Harriet, received incredible support when suffering sepsis at a hospital in Birmingham – but that she was let down by her experience of postnatal care at separate, nearby hospital.

There, "the midwives wanted everyone in and out as quickly as possible, pressure to feed the baby was intense and without proper support. The antenatal shared ward was emotionally traumatic.

“I was unable to walk after a spinal block and was told that I had to get my own breakfast from the counter. As I was physically unable to move, I was told - ‘oh well, you’ve missed it’.

“When I did eat - the food was absolutely awful, especially considering I’d lost a lot of blood and was recovering from emergency surgery.”

Image source, Handout

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

The Royal Free is one of London’s eight specialist heart attack centres. They get patients from all across the north of the capital, both those referred in by GPs for planned treatment for chest pain and other emergency cases brought in by ambulance.

Those emergency cases bypass A&E and can be brought straight into the department.

Senior charge nurse Rui Tinoco says: “We never know who will be coming in as an emergency – and how many. It can be zero, it can be 10. If we get quite a few we have to delay the treatment for the non-emergency cases.”

With two areas to carry out these procedures, the unit can see more than a dozen each day.

The most common procedure is putting in stents to unblock arteries to the heart.

Most patients they see are in their 50s, 60s and 70s, but sometimes they will get people in their 30s brought in by paramedics, says Rui.

“It is quite shocking to see people that young,” he says. “Lifestyle is the big factor with these cases. Many of us working here are in our 30s, so it is quite upsetting to see.”

Shortly after the NHS was founded, in 1949-50, total UK health spending was around £17bn in today's money.

By 2023–24 it had grown to £226bn.

Health spending per person, external in 2022-23 was around £3,300 in England and Scotland, £3,600 in Wales and £3,500 in Northern Ireland.

In the Autumn Budget last year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced, external an additional £26bn a year for the English health budget by 2025-26, which will automatically increase the resources available to the devolved nations.

As a share of the overall economy - or GDP - spending on health has massively increased over the past 70 years.

Health spending jumped in the pandemic due to the costs of vaccinations and the "test and trace" programme.

Around 80% of total health spending is funded by the government in the UK, mainly going to the NHS. The other 20% comes through private insurance schemes or out-of-pocket costs.

That means health spending as a share of total government spending has also considerably increased.

In the middle of the 1950s, health accounted for around £1 in every £8 the government spent.

Today it's roughly £1 in every £3.

We've been reporting a lot today on healthy people being stuck in hospital and unable to be discharged, due to a lack of social support care for when they leave.

The BBC took these claims to the Department of Health and Social care, who said:

Chloe Hayward
BBC News, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

Collins, a ward manager on the adult assessment unit, says there were six patients identified yesterday who would ideally have been moved to a ward, but none of them were due to a lack of availability of ward beds.

He’s really hoping some will be moved today – realistically three would be good - he tells me.

Adult assessment units (AAU) are places that aim to see and treat patients quickly, before discharging them home or moving into a specialist ward for more specific care.

An AAU can be a bridge between A&E and hospital wards when a patient needs more tests or treatment before deciding which specialty would be best for them, for example. If AAUs fill up, then this can slow the flow of patients leaving A&E.

Hugh Pym
Health editor, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

Another worrying stat out today – last week there were more than 14,000 patients in hospitals in England who were medically fit to leave but could not do so because of problems with social or community care.

This is the highest figure of the winter so far.

NHS Providers, representing trusts, say: “This log-jam has been a challenge for years, we need a long term solution – it has a serious knock on effect with a record number of patients waiting to be admitted through A&E”.

Your Voice, Your BBC News
Thomas Copeland

There will be lots of difficult news today, but we also want to hear your positive stories of the NHS.

Your Voice, Your BBC News has just been contacted by Emily, who is being treated for ovarian cancer at Royal United Hospital in Bath.

"It must be so depressing to work in an organisation which everyone moans about, when they give us nothing but top-notch care and medical expertise," she says.

"Nothing seems to be too much trouble, whether it’s another blanket as I shiver with the cold cap on or endless cups of tea."

"The nurses answer every query however unimportant the same day and the help line for out-of-hours serious stuff is also very efficient and attentive," Emily says.

"We should be praising the NHS, not knocking it," she says.

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

Image source, bbc

Patricia Nolan, 82, had to spend the night in A&E after breaking and dislocating her wrist. She fell yesterday afternoon when rushing for a bus.

She was provided with a trolley in a cubicle in the adult assessment unit, at the back of the A&E unit, for the night.

“I can’t complain to be honest – I had a little wait but that’s to be expected. The reason I couldn’t go home is that I will need some support to help me at home.”

She has a condition which causes her numbness in her feet and legs, which causes balance problems.

The hospital is working with the local council to arrange some support for her so she can return home.

“Hopefully it will be sorted soon. But I just have to wait in the meantime. I will have to return in a week or so as they need to x-ray it to make sure it is aligned and healing – otherwise I may have to have an operation.

“But I’m very pro the Royal Free – I’ve always received good care.”

The NHS has a target that patients for non-urgent care should be seen within 18 weeks for treatment after being referred.

We heard earlier that this isn't being met, but NHS England says it's committed to implementing it "by the end of this parliament".

At the Royal Free Hospital, it's currently only 3% below the average for England. But, it's at 56% - a significant amount below the target of 92%.

NHS England hasn't met that 92% target since 2015.

Luna the therapy dog has just popped in to the BBC News coverage to say hi.

She works in the hospital to provide emotional support for its patients, visiting the wards and clinics.

And she's very good at her job - she won the volunteer of the year award at the Royal Free London staff Oscar awards last year.

We can see why - she certainly put a smile on our faces.

She's one of 18 therapy dogs at the Royal Free Hospital that are looked after by volunteers.

Image source, Reuters

The Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting says the government has already cut NHS waiting lists by almost 160,000 since July.

“As we work to end the misery of people left stranded on NHS waiting lists, we will also continue to address the issues facing our A&E departments," he says.

“Annual winter pressures should not automatically lead to an annual winter crises."

The government will soon be publishing a plan to improve urgent and emergency care services, he says.

Nick Triggle
Health correspondent, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

The Royal Free Hospital is under significant pressure this morning.

The NHS uses what is called operational pressures escalation levels (Opel) to monitor every site.

The Royal Free is at a high three – one level below the highest alert level four.

At level four, steps such as diverting patients to nearby hospitals are considered.

Staff here say it will not take much to push the hospital to that point.

There is no space left in A&E and there are some patients who are in trolleys or on chairs outside wards waiting for a bed.

Moving up to level four is not that unusual for hospitals during recent winters. But it is a sign of just how bad the strain is at the Royal Free at the moment.

Hugh Pym
Health editor, reporting from the Royal Free Hospital

A key benchmark for A&E performance in England showed a slight improvement in January – with 73% of patients treated or assessed within four hours. But that was still well short of the 95% target.

Ominously the numbers enduring long waits went up in the month, with nearly 160,000 waiting longer than four hours for a bed to be found after a decision to admit them – many on chairs or trolleys.

Over 54,000 waited longer than 12 hours in emergency departments before a bed was found.

At first glance these numbers look like the highest since records began.

Your Voice, Your BBC News
Bobbi Huyton

Image source, Handout

Jairo in Chester tells Your Voice, Your BBC News that his 74-year-old mother-in-law faced agonising waits for a bed at a north-west England hospital, when she was suffering with pneumonia.

He says, “many others were in the same situation. The conditions inside the hospital were unbelievable – all of the corridors were full of people being attended in chairs or on trolleys.

“A ward for two people would have around ten people within it. Staff were very apologetic about the situation. It was a traumatic experience.”

As a reminder, you can get in touch with your experience of the NHS via email bbcyourvoice@bbc.co.uk, WhatsApp +44 7980 682727 or by clicking here.

Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

Here's some more key points from the latest NHS statistics which were released this morning:

• The NHS delivered more than 28.3 million tests and checks in 2024 - up a fifth on 23.6 million in 2019 and up 7% on 26.5 million in 2023
• NHS staff delivered 2.24 million checks in December alone, up 21% on 1.85 million in 2019
• The NHS met the faster diagnosis standard for cancer again in December with 78.1% of people receiving the all clear or a definitive diagnosis
• There were 20,000 more people diagnosed or given the all clear within the standard compared to the same month in 2023 - 190,571 in December 2024
• Despite high levels of winter illnesses like flu and norovirus, high bed occupancy and difficulties discharging patients, 73% of patients were seen within four hours in A&E - an improvement on the month before and the same month in 2023

Professor Julian Redhead, NHS England’s national clinical director for urgent and emergency care, says the figures "show how innovations and the hard work of staff is now delivering consistent progress in bringing down the backlog".

“This post pandemic period is potentially the hardest the NHS has ever managed and that has certainly been true this winter with soaring levels of viruses, high bed occupancy and difficulties discharging patients," he adds.

Despite this, A&E and ambulance waiting times were improved, Redhead says.

The public can help by only using 999 in a life-threatening emergency and 111 for other conditions.