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Cases of flu are continuing to soar as the latest data showed the number of hospital patients in England with the illness was five times higher than at the beginning of December.
Data published on Thursday by NHS England showed there were 5,408 people in hospital with flu on average every day last week, compared with 4,469 the previous week and 1,098 in early December. The latest data showed 256 patients with flu were in critical care last week, up from 211 the week before.
Separate NHS data published on Thursday also showed that 2024 was the busiest year on record for A&E services in England, with an average 2.3mn attendances each month.
About 20 hospital trusts have declared critical incidents this week because of extreme pressures being felt in A&E departments across the country, following reports of patients being forced to wait up to 50 hours for treatment.
NHS England said on Thursday that the rise in critical incidents was due to “exceptional demand caused by the colder weather and respiratory viruses”.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said NHS staff were reporting pressures similar to the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year’s flu season started earlier than in 2023-24, with 3.6 times as many flu cases in hospitals in England in the first week of this year as there were in the same week last year.
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NHS leaders warned that hospitals in England faced mounting pressure from a “quad-demic” of flu, norovirus, Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus.
Powis said on Thursday it was “hard to quantify just through the data how tough it is for frontline staff at the moment — with some staff working in A&E saying that their days at work feel like some of the days we had during the height of the pandemic”.
The latest data also showed more than 1,100 patients were in hospital in England with Covid-19 on average each day last week, while 626 patients were hospitalised with norovirus, an increase of nearly 50 per cent compared with the same week in 2024, when the figure stood at 424.
Vaccination rates for at-risk groups were in line with 2023 by the end of December, but coverage among pensioners was lower than usual at the end of November. This followed a decision to delay the rollout of jabs for vulnerable pensioners so they could be vaccinated closer to peak flu season, as protection can wane over time.
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“The root cause of long delays in and outside of A&E departments is that hospitals were already close to gridlock, even before the expected surges in demand from flu and other viruses”, noted Tim Gardner, assistant director of policy at the Health Foundation.
“While December saw over 100,000 bed days lost to flu, over three times as many were lost to delayed discharges in the same period, partly due to problems arranging suitable social care and other community-based services.”
