An exclusive behind-the-scenes video shows the situation faced by NHS hospitals amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The footage shows the grim reality of the nation’s health crisis as the Press Association (PA) were granted exclusive access to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, London.

Reporters and video journalists were granted access on Wednesday to highlight the impact the pandemic is having on UK hospitals, the same day the UK recorded 1,041 coronavirus deaths – the first time the figure has reached over 1,000 since April.

Watch the video here:

Dr Mark Haden, an emergency department consultant, said: “We make it look like business as usual but it’s very much not – it’s very different to our usual pattern of work.

“Everyone’s stress levels are higher than usual. Everyone is working to the limit, to the threshold of what they’re able to.

“The hospital bed occupancy is very, very high, it has lots of Covid patients as inpatients at the moment. It’s very stressful for staff and that is starting to show.”

St George’s has had to expand the number of intensive care beds for the critically sick from 60 to 120, the vast majority of which are for coronavirus patients.

The rest are for those recovering from other serious trauma such as heart attacks or road traffic accidents.

But the expansion has had a real impact on both the staff and patients’ treatment.

Nurses who would usually be assigned to one patient are now having to deal with up to four casualties at one time.

And they are doing so while wearing uncomfortable personal protective equipment (PPE).

Tori Cooper, Head of Nursing on the emergency department said the situation was more difficult than anything she has ever seen in 20 years of nursing.

She said: “It is ever-present, and you are worried about yourself, your family, your life, other people’s families and the things that we have seen have been more difficult than anything I’ve ever seen.

“I’ve been qualified for over 20 years and this is by far the hardest we’ve ever had to deal with anything, in terms of support.”

She added: “When you go home, you almost don’t want to allow yourself that time to crumble because you think if you start you won’t stop.

“We’re seeing young people, old people, every single person is a member of someone’s family and every single person could be a member of my family.

“That’s what is so awful about this situation because you can’t rationalise it."