A brief respite for Emergency Departments over the festive period, while welcome, will do little to settle staff nerves as a cold snap descends over England.
That’s the message from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine today (2 January, 2026), following the publication of NHS England’s Situational Report data covering the weeks 15-21 and 22-28 December 2025.
This data showed that there had been a dramatic drop in bed occupancy between those two week periods, from 93.1% to 87.2% respectively.
The number of patients who are medically fit to leave hospital occupying beds, similarly, decreased from 12,909 in the first week to 11,494 in the second.
Some seasonal illnesses began to fall in prevalence: 2,935 beds in major EDs in England were occupied by flu patients in the week ending 21 December, a decrease of 70 on the previous week.
This figure then dropped by 391 for the week ending 28 December, totalling 2,544.
Despite these encouraging figures, RCEM remains extremely concerned about the state of EDs because a drop-off in some of the headline figures at this time of year is normal, and is typically followed by a return to pre-Christmas levels of bed occupancy and long waits in ED.
Dr Ian Higginson, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “It is encouraging to see that flu hospitalisations have begun to fall, and that we made it through the festive period without a completely unmanageable surge in demand for our services, whilst parts of the NHS temporarily shuts down.
But annual trends suggest this will not last and it will soon be back to ‘business as usual’, which is corridor care and unacceptable conditions for patients.
“The drop-off is not a surprise and happens every year over the Christmas period, and while progress is positive, the first weeks of January usually seeing a recoil as attendances increase and the negative consequences of a partial close-down become clear.
“So, today’s figures do nothing to reassure me that the rest of winter will be any less hectic, chaotic and ultimately harmful for patients and staff than in previous years.
“And, make no mistake, EDs were still struggling over Christmas. We’re still at capacity constantly, with blockages throughout the hospital system meaning patients are piling up in our departments.
“Politicians – make it your New Year’s Resolution to tackle the Emergency Care crisis, which is hurting our patients and putting their lives at risk.
“This must include a credible and long term plan to reduce bed occupancy rates to 85% all year around, and for hospital flow to be put at the heart of reforms to the NHS this year.”
