
The NHS is at its worst since records began, according to the British Red Cross.
It says there has been an “invisible humanitarian crisis” in England and has been called in by some hospitals to help.
The government says it is investing £10bn for hospitals and £4bn for GP services over the next five years.
On Thursday, 12 of England’s 50 ambulance trusts issued warnings that they could not meet their targets for responding to the most serious calls within eight minutes.
What has happened?
There are a number of factors affecting the NHS at present, with more patients needing emergency care and bed occupancy high.
These pressures have led to operations being cancelled, ambulances queuing outside hospitals and problems discharging older patients who no longer need hospital care.
The number of people in hospital beds across England – just under 100,000 – is higher than it has been since monitoring began in 2010-11.
The NHS is at its worst state since records began