Patients are being forced to sleep on floors with people stepping over them at a busy hospital in West Yorkshire - as the NHS winter chaos gripping Britain continues to worsen.

Shocking images taken at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield show members of the public lying down in corridors.

In one photo a patient dressed only in a loose hospital gown lies next to a metal wheelchair. A second shows a man, attached to a drip, bedded down with his head resting on his rolled-up coat.

Shocking images taken at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield show members of the public being forced to sleep on floors

The images were taken by a 57-year-old woman and passed to Tracy Brabin, MP for Batley and Spen.

The woman, who has asked not to be named, described conditions as worse than prison and stressed people were being forced to sleep on floors at the hospital regularly.

She said: 'This state of affairs at Pinderfields is not just in A&E and not just at Christmas. It's happening on a regular basis.

'People were sitting around in chairs, shivering. In 2018 people should not be having to sleep on the floor without either a pillow or a blanket. If you were in prison you would be offered a pillow and a blanket - and a bed.

'I have nothing but admiration for the doctors and nurses. They were working tirelessly but there were not enough of them. They are run ragged.'

She continued: 'The man who was lying on the floor at the bottom of my husband's bed was being sick.

The pictures, which reveal the true extent of the NHS winter crisis, were taken in the early hours of January 2 in the cubicle area of Pinderfields' Accident & Emergency department

'He was asking for a trolley to lie on but there wasn't one to give him. He was there for a few hours.

'People were stepping over him. I never expected to see that.'

PENSIONERS WAITING 14 HOURS IN A&E A pensioner has told how he was forced to wait for a bed for 14 hours in A&E in a stark illustration of the winter crisis gripping the NHS. Raymond Horner, from Bishop Auckland, said he was 'shouting in pure agony' in the A&E department at Darlington Memorial Hospital, as staff struggled to cope with the number of patients and the lack of available beds. The family of the 84-year-old said the department was 'horrendously busy' when they visited just before the New Year, and said patients were having to sit on the floor as they waited to be seen by medical staff. They also criticised the lack of A&E services at Bishop Auckland Hospital, which they live just a mile away from. A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust apologised for the delays patients have faced, while Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman described Mr Horner's experience as 'very distressing'. Advertisement

The pictures, which reveal the true extent of the NHS winter crisis, were taken in the early hours of January 2 in the cubicle area of Pinderfields' Accident & Emergency department.

The unnamed woman and her husband had travelled by ambulance 20 miles from their home to Pinderfields at one o'clock in the morning.

'What I saw the other night is the result of downgrading Dewsbury Hospital, and staff just can't cope.

They're wanting to close Huddersfield Royal Infirmary as well.

'It's absolute madness.'

The unnamed woman from Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire also responded to claims from a health chief that chairs were available for all patients waiting to be seen.

'You can understand people being tired and lying on the floor but it was not really like that,' she explained.

'People are waiting hours and hours and hours and have to sit on hard metal chairs.

'After you have spent so many hours sitting in a chair when you are poorly you will get into any position you can to be comfortable.'

David Melia, Director of Nursing and Quality at the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Pinderfields, said the Trust had received no complaints regarding the care of the two patients identified in the photographs, 'who may have chosen to lie down as seats were provided.

How busy is YOUR hospital? NHS statistics reveal how the winter crisis has crippled trusts across the country leaving some with NO free beds

More than 30 hospitals had no free beds for patients at some point during last week, an analysis of official NHS statistics reveals.

Between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, some 22 hospital trusts reported they were full and operating at 100 per cent capacity.

Those trusts which announced they had no space on at least one day over the seven-day period are responsible for running 33 hospitals.

Occupancy levels should never exceed the 85 per cent safe level, as above this can have serious health risks, officials warn.

The damning statistics, released yesterday, showed that 12 trusts had no spare beds on New Year's Eve - the last day of the captured NHS data

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust reported it had no free beds on five occasions during the seven day period, according to the NHS England figures.

While four other trusts scattered across the country had reached maximum capacity on four separate days, MailOnline can reveal.

They were: James Paget University Hospitals FT, North Middlesex University Hospital, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, FT and Bolton FT.

The damning statistics, released yesterday, showed that 12 trusts had no spare beds on New Year's Eve - the last day of the captured NHS data.

This figure is double that of the same day in 2016, when just six were recorded. The Red Cross branded the situation last winter a 'humanitarian crisis'.

Bed occupancy rates averaged 91.7 per cent for England across the week, climbing as high as 93.5 per cent on New Year's Eve.

The figure was a stark 2.6 per cent jump on the previous week, when 90.9 per cent of beds were taken up by patients - still above safety guidelines.

Patients are believed to be more likely to die from infections or neglect when wards are above the safe level of 85 per cent - a level set by NHS bosses.

It is believed that doctors and nurses may not always have time to wash their hands between patients.

THE TRUSTS WITH NO FREE BEDS LAST WEEK Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - 2

Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - 2

James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - 1

Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - 1

Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - 1

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust - 1

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust - 1

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust - 3

Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - 1

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust - 1

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust - 1

Weston Area Health NHS Trust - 1

Wrightington, Wigan And Leigh NHS Foundation Trust - 2

East Cheshire NHS Trust - 3

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust - 1

Norfolk And Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - 2

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - 1

North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust - 1

Southport And Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust - 2

The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust

Bedford Hospital NHS Trust - 1

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust - 3 Between these 22 trusts, they run 33 hospitals. Advertisement

While there is also a danger that staff do not thoroughly clean beds in between patients as they are so busy.

But many warn this is becoming increasingly difficult to attain, with the NHS being over-stretched amid fears of its worst winter on record.

Many of the patients occupying hospital beds are elderly and medically well enough to go home. But doctors cannot discharge them due to a lack of social care.

NHS bosses made the controversial decision to postpone 55,000 operations in a desperate attempt to cope with the crisis on Wednesday.

Managers will be allowed to put patients on mixed-sex wards and consultants will be assigned to casualty units to assess patients on arrival.

And patients coming into A&E will be assessed by a consultant on the door to establish very quickly whether they are seriously ill.

Professor Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, warned that cancelling operations was a 'necessary evil'.

But he slammed the statistics, which showed many hospitals are still struggling to find space for patients - even after the unprecedented move by chiefs.

He said: 'The fact many hospitals have full wards, even after cancelling operations, shows we simply don't have sufficient numbers of beds in English hospitals.'

Families have also been asked to look after elderly patients at home to free up beds as hospitals struggle to cope with the ever-increasing pressure.

Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday apologised to the patients facing delays to their operations - despite refusing to admit the NHS is in a crisis.

Her comments followed an apology for the patients affected by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt after pressure from critics for him to speak out about the move.

A&E staff have taken to social media to condemn the situation, revealing they are 'ashamed' over the 'substandard care' the NHS is offering.

Others have branded the crisis as 'battlefield medicine' and warned it is unusual for the winter pressures to begin so early, with a spike in flu cases to blame.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, warned the NHS is starting 'to buckle under an unbearable level of pressure'.

'Hospitals have unsafe levels of bed occupancy. People can get stuck in them because there is nowhere for them to be cared for in the community.'