Hospitals have added extra beds this year to cope with the pressure on admissions from influenza and winter viruses such as the new coronavirus and norovirus.
NHS chiefs said they had also increased support for people who frequently needed emergency services, making more care available outside hospitals.
NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor said the NHS had done “everything we could” proactively to reduce risks to patients, but “intense pressure” was impacting on local services. He said the service remains a “national vulnerability”. .
Last week’s statistics showed that around 12,200 patients had to wait more than an hour in ambulances to be treated at hospitals.
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that this was an extremely difficult time for both patients and staff.
“What we’re seeing is that ambulances are frequently stuck outside the emergency department and the emergency department is full.”
“There’s a huge amount of avoidable harm, excess deaths that shouldn’t happen,” he said.
“Influenza is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, because we have a chronic shortage of beds in hospitals and because we haven’t reformed social care, we’re not using them properly,” he added.
His criticisms came on the day the Health and Social Care Secretary set out plans to reform England’s adult social care, which are unlikely to be delivered before 2028 at the earliest.
Many hospitals in different parts of England are restricting visitors and asking patients and visitors to wear masks to prevent further spread of the flu.
Scotland has also seen a significant rise in the number of people admitted to hospital with influenza. Earlier this week, Prime Minister John Swinney said the NHS was under “very significant pressure”.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said emergency medical services remained in “high demand” this winter, with a rise in flu cases adding further pressure over the Christmas period.
