The NHS saw record waiting times in A&E wards in December as well as a big spike in the number of people waiting to start treatment or be transferred from hospital into social care.

During the winter months the health service is traditionally put under more strain with a greater number of people relying on key services such as accident and emergency departments.

But this winter seems to be worse than in previous years with record poor performances in a number of key indicators for the month of December and provisional figures obtained by the BBC showing that January could be even worse.