The NHS is at "breaking point" after hospitals in England "endured one of the worst winters on record", according to doctors.

The British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors' union, is urging political parties "not to duck this crisis any longer" as they prepare to resume general election campaigning on Friday.

Their warning is based on the "startling" findings of the BMA's latest analysis of NHS performance in England.

Bed capacity, waiting times and hospitals' ability to cope with patient numbers were scrutinised in the study.

The BMA found:


In the first three months of this year, bed occupancy on general and acute wards in English hospitals was the highest figure recorded at 91.4%.

The end of 2016 found a record occupancy of beds for mental health patients, with 89.7% of beds filled.

Ninety-four of 152 NHS Foundation Trusts issued major alerts on at least one day between December 2016 and the middle of March this year to say they could not cope.

Over the past seven years there has been a 6,831% rise in the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours on a trolley.

Bed occupancy, delayed transfers of care and waits at Accident & Emergency were all increasing.

The findings for this winter were "particularly stark" because there were no external pressures on the NHS in England, BMA council chairman Dr Mark Porter said.

Describing how the country's hospitals had "endured one of the worst winters on record", he added: "The weather was mild and there were no widespread outbreaks of flu or norovirus.

"The pressure the NHS is under is purely down to bad political choices, with years of chronic underfunding and investment in services failing to keep up with patient demand.

"Politicians are consistently missing their own targets across the health system and the NHS is clearly at breaking point.

"Pressures previously only seen during the winter months are now becoming the norm year-round, as current trends suggest that performance will continue to deteriorate rather than improve."

Britain's main political parties had suspended campaigning ahead of the 8 June General Election in the wake of the Manchester terror attack on Monday night.

On Thursday it was revealed all 27 major trauma centres in England have been told to prepare staff for a potential terrorist attack ahead of the Bank Holiday weekend.

Responding to the BMA analysis, an NHS England spokesman said: "As today's public NHS England board meeting heard, March 2017 saw better A&E and ambulance performance than last year and waits for elective care got shorter, continuing the trend seen in the last few months and bringing the average wait down to only just over six weeks.

"Occupancy rates also compare favourably thanks to more than 580 more beds being available than the same month last year."