By Thomas Moore, Health And Science Correspondent
Figures due to be released later are expected to show a rise in the number of patients seeking emergency treatment.
At Good Hope Hospital in the West Midlands A&E staff have been dealing with a surge of patients since the New Year.
A new rapid assessment team of senior doctors and nurses checks fresh arrivals within 30 minutes of them coming in, redirecting those who could be seen by a GP or a minor injuries unit.
But a delay in discharging patients from the wards is causing a bottleneck.
By early afternoon 13 patients are waiting in cubicles to be admitted. Until they're found a bed patients are having to wait on trolleys for their A&E treatment to start.
A&E matron Anna Howell said the backlog adds to pressure on staff.
"It means we are doing two jobs rather than one," she said.
"There is the A&E workload and then there is the workload of patients who are stable and safe and need to be admitted for specialist treatment. They need different nursing."
Alice Mills, who turns 100 later this month, is one of those needing a bed.
She has breathing problems and doctors suspect she has an infection.
Her daughter, Lesley Partridge, said although staff were busy they were still caring.
"She was scared about coming into hospital," she said.
"But everybody has reassured her, joked with her and calmed her. It's exactly what she needed."
The problem with bed-blocking at Good Hope is common around the NHS.
Figures released earlier this week by NHS England showed that almost 2,700 beds are occupied by patients who are better. That is up on this time last year.
A&E doctor at Good Hope Abimbola Otesile said the work rarely stops.
"As soon as you finish one patient you see the next one almost immediately, so you get very tired by the end of the day," he said.
:: All this week Sky News will have live coverage examining the crisis in the NHS. Watch 'A Matter Of Life And Death' on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.
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