成人快手

We are half way through the first month of the New Year - traditionally the busiest time for hospitals - and of course the doctor's strike this week will have put more pressure on an already creaking system.

The availability of beds is a central problem - in November last year, the month for which the most recent figures are available, 153,000 discharges were delayed, up thirteen thousand on the same month in the previous year and the second highest on record.

Most accept that a big part of that is a delay in finding social care places for people who need looking after, but don't need to be in hospital. Our reporter Andrew Bomford has spent two days at the Royal Liverpool Hospital to see how they are coping.

(Photo: Hospital patient's meal. Credit: Science Photo Library)