Figures show amount of pressure on South Tyneside and Sunderland hospitals over Christmas: NHS facing ‘most precarious time ever’ as staff aim to free up beds for Omicron surge'

Hospitals across England were potentially dangerously busy over Christmas despite a significant drop in patient numbers.

Our sister title NationalWorld revealed on December 31 how NHS trusts in England are recording bed occupancy levels higher than 85%, which is generally considered a safe limit.

Hospitals in the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust went past 85% for two days in the week running up to December 26.

However, they were not above the national average for England and occupancy had dipped by almost 10% from the previous week.

The occupancy rate for the trust sat at 78.8% for the week to December 26, versus 88.1% for the previous week.

The Trust announced on New Year’s Eve that visiting patients would be suspended from January 1 at all its hospital sites as covid cases rose.

The latest figures show as of January 1 there were 50 Covid-19 patients reported as being cared for by South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, with three on ventilators.

Average occupancy was highest in the South West at 91% compared to a low of 84.6% in the North East and Yorkshire.

The trust with the highest average occupancy was at the Northampton General Hospital Trust, where it was 97.4%.

That was followed by Croydon Health Services Trust at 97.1%, and Whittington Health Trust at 96.6%, both in London.

Almost 30 trusts recorded above 85% occupancy on every day of the week.