Walsall Manor Hospital left at full capacity with not a single bed free

The hospital was one of seven in the country which hit 99 per cent capacity in the run up to Christmas.

According to official figures it was completely full for 26 of 35 nights leading up to and including December 24.

Labour has warned that high bed occupancy rates pose a 'serious risk' to patient safety, while a leading doctor says the situation has meant that pressures on the NHS have 'escalated rapidly' in recent weeks.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust was recently given a 'requires improvement' rating by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), an upgrade on its previous rating of 'inadequate'.

However, waiting times at Walsall Manor Hospital have been consistently below the Government target, which says 95 per cent of patients should be seen in under four hours.

Average bed occupancy for the winter across the NHS stands at 93.8 per cent, compared to 92.1 per cent at the same stage last year.

Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, said: "Bed occupancy rates above 85 per cent pose a substantial risk to patient safety and the downturn compared with last year should be a cause for serious concern."

Dr Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM), said services had been placed under significant strain as they enter the new year and called for non-urgent operations to be postponed until at least the end of this month.

“Since the bank holiday, things have escalated rapidly and we are on the cusp of a major issue at least as bad as last year when it was described by the Red Cross as a humanitarian crisis," he said.

"There is an awful lot of respiratory illness causing a lot of severe symptoms in the old and young and 10 to 12-hour delays in emergency departments are now not uncommon – along with patients being placed on inappropriate wards.”

He urged hospitals to prepare for extra demand, adding: “I fear for acute trusts this next week.”

A spokesman for NHS England said: “As you would expect at this time of year, our hospitals are extremely busy, but thanks to hard-working NHS staff and robust plans in place to meet winter pressures, they are generally coping.

“Bed occupancy on Christmas Eve was down to 84.2 per cent, compared with 95.3 per cent on December 18.

“Hospitals are prioritising the increased numbers of emergency patients over non-urgent planned services, and additional services and beds are coming online, funded by the winter budget cash released by the Government.”