NHS FLU CRISIS: Doctors warn rising cases coinciding with severe cold weather could be ‘the straw that breaks the camel’s back’ for crisis-hit healthcare – as nine hospitals report critical incidents

More than a dozen hospitals have declared “critical incidents” as the flu outbreak worsens.

Health leaders warned last night that the NHS is facing ‘exceptionally high demand’ – with cases already around double last year’s peak.

About 5,000 beds a day are taken up by patients infected with the virus and officials expect the crisis to worsen this week as children return to school after the Christmas holidays.

Patients had to wait up to 50 hours in the emergency department before finally being admitted to the ward.

And ambulance queues have formed outside hospitals that can be as much as 18 ambulances deep as they wait for hours to deliver arrivals, leaving them unable to respond to other 999 calls.

Health Minister Wes Streeting vowed to make improvements and admitted he was ‘saddened and ashamed’ to see the situation sick Britons find themselves in.

Meanwhile, some medical staff have been ordered to start wearing masks again in an effort to curb the spread of infections, and hospitals are imposing stricter restrictions on visitors.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England, urged eligible patients to get their flu jab.

He said those who are vulnerable or have respiratory illnesses should “stay warm” and stock up on medicine before temperatures drop to “dangerous” levels in the coming days.

Hospitals in Northamptonshire, Cornwall, Liverpool, Hampshire, Birmingham and Plymouth are among those experiencing ‘critical incidents’ – which can occur when health and care services are so busy that special measures are needed to maintain normal operations. restore.

East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust also declared the first critical incident in its history due to a combination of ‘significant patient demand, pressure within local hospitals and flooding’.

Non-urgent patients have been warned they may face long waiting times in A&E and have been urged to ‘consider other options’ such as contacting their GP, visiting a pharmacy or calling NHS 111.

Sir Stephen said: ‘NHS frontline staff are under significant pressure and demand shows no signs of abating. The latest data shows flu cases skyrocketed to around 5,000 a day in hospitals at the end of last year, and several trusts across the country have declared incidents to help them manage the extra pressure on services.

‘Over the past week the NHS flu advice page has been visited an average of once every eight seconds and as well as the flu, hospitals are also seeing continued pressure from cases of Covid, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and norovirus as the “quad-demic” continues to put the pressure on increase services.

‘We expect to see a further rise in flu cases as children return to school, along with nasty bugs such as norovirus, which remains highly contagious for up to 48 hours after symptoms have cleared.’

It comes as fears grow over a virus – called human metapneumovirus (hMPV) – that is said to be on the rise in China.

Data shows the number of cases of the infection – which has flu-like symptoms – has doubled in the past month.

Speaking on LBC Radio, Mr Streeting said some ambulances are simply taking patients to A&E to die because there is not ‘the right care available in the right place at the right time’.

He acknowledged that hospitals may refuse to accept new arrivals because their wards are full, but warned this poses “unbearable patient risk.” The minister pledged to do ‘everything I can’ to ‘ensure we see consistent improvement year on year’, but admitted this will take time.

He added: ‘I feel genuinely saddened and even ashamed by some of the things patients are experiencing, and I know that staff in the NHS and social care services feel the same way.

“They go to work, they work their asses off, and it’s very painful for them to see people in this condition.”

Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive at NHS Providers, said: ‘Departments and emergency departments are under relentless pressure, with a knock-on effect on ambulance transfers, but NHS staff and trust leaders continue to do everything they can to get patients through as quickly as possible. possible to see. possible.’

Dr. Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: ‘It is a significant flu outbreak but the problem is there is simply no capacity to deal with it.

‘So it really is a straw that breaks the camel’s back.’

The Royal Liverpool University Hospital has been in a critical condition as of Monday evening.

The longest time a patient waited to be admitted to a hospital ward was 50 hours, it is understood.

Welsh Ambulance Services also declared a critical incident. Welsh Conservative health spokesman James Evans said 18 ambulances were queuing outside the Grange Hospital near Newport, south Wales.

York and Scarborough hospitals are urging patients to go to ‘overcrowded’ emergency departments alone.

Dr. Ed Smith, from York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘While we understand that it is appropriate for a friend or relative to accompany a child or as a carer, this will help, for example, if patients can attend alone. free up much-needed space for other patients.”

Meanwhile, hospitals in Scotland are struggling to cope with the pressures of extreme weather and an ‘extraordinary wave’ of flu, with some wards approaching 400 per cent capacity and patients receiving ‘unsafe care’.

Large parts of the country are prepared for more snow and ice, which could send more patients to emergency rooms with fall and winter illnesses.

The latest figures for the week ending December 29 – the last full week of 2024 – showed that just 58.4 percent of A&E patients were treated within the targeted four hours – the fifth worst performance on record for weekly figures recorded going back to 2015.

November 2024 was the worst November ever for emergency care, with only 65.8 percent treated within the target time.

NHS Grampian declared a critical incident in November where some ambulance patients were diverted to hospitals outside the health board’s area, and shortly before Christmas the Scottish Ambulance Service placed crews on the highest emergency level due to ‘significant pressure’.

Dr. Fiona Hunter, vice-chair of RCEM Scotland, said blocking beds had blocked the flow of patients.

She said: ‘The system was already under extreme pressure, and this massive flu and cold snap is likely to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.’

Dr. Hunter said some wards were “reaching almost 400 per cent capacity – four times as many patients as there are berths for them.”

She added: “Our patients are receiving unacceptable, undignified and unsafe care in corridors and in the backs of ambulances. The main problem is that we cannot move our patients to high dependency wards or wards.

“We are predictably stuck in the middle of a winter crisis, and our patients and staff are the ones suffering.”

However, Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray said: ‘thanks to the robust preparation, dedication and hard work of health and social care staff, our services continue to perform well’.

There were 1,537 emergency admissions to Scottish hospitals for flu in the last week of 2024 – significantly more than the 436 in the same week the previous winter.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said Mr Gray was “fooling himself if he thinks anything in his winter NHS plan has been successful”, while Scotland’s Royal College of Nursing said that health and social care services have ‘entered 2025 under pressure and pressure’. manned’.

Last winter, all adults aged 50-65 participated in the free injection program, but this winter the eligibility age was increased to 65.

Around 1.2 million Scots have received flu jabs so far this season, compared to 1.6 million in the same period last winter.