The number of people sick in hospital with flu is still spiralling in England, prompting fears for the state of packed hospitals.
There were an average of 5,408 flu patients in the nation’s hospitals in the week ending January 5. That’s up from an average of just 4,469 a week earlier.
Cases peaked on January 3 when a total of 5,657 beds were taken up with flu patients. This year’s winter flu season is far worse than what was experienced last year, when an average of 1,520 people were in hospital with flu in the week ending January 5, 2024 – three times fewer than this year.
In the same week of 2023, however, an average of 5,835 patients were in hospital with flu.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting said: “Although this winter’s campaign vaccinated more people than last winter, this strain of flu has hit hard, putting more than three times as many patients into hospital compared to this time last year. Annual winter pressures should not mean an annual winter crisis, which is why this government is making significant investment in the NHS, undertaking fundamental reform, and acting now to improve social care. It will take time to turn the NHS around, but the fact that waiting lists are now falling shows that change is possible.”
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS National Medical Director, said: “It is clear that hospitals are under exceptional pressure at the start of this new year, with mammoth demand stemming from this ongoing cold weather snap and respiratory viruses like flu – all on the back of 2024 being the busiest year on record for A&E and ambulance teams.”
The NHS has been warning of a ‘tidal wave’ of flu, Covid-19, RSV and norovirus piling pressure on hospitals across the country – dubbed a ‘quad-demic’.
Staff in the region’s hospitals have spoken out in recent weeks about ‘severe overcrowding’, and severe shortages of beds. In the days before Christmas, high-level health sources told the Manchester Evening News of standing room only in the region’s A&Es, waits of more than 36 hours for a bed, frail patients breaking limbs, and elderly people in their 80s and 90s spending hours lying on trolleys in corridors.
Multiple anonymous accounts painted a bleak picture of what that looks like on the frontline. Staff have come forward with stories of ‘extreme overcrowding’, where emergency departments have been filled with as many as 180 people.
Data has shown that hundreds of patients in Greater Manchester were stuck in ambulances for more than an hour, waiting to be admitted to scarce hospital beds over Christmas in Greater Manchester. One in every 14 of those arriving to hospital by ambulance during the festive season had to wait over an hour before being admitted to both emergency and non-emergency departments, largely because of a lack of beds to give them.
There are also hundreds of patients who are medically well enough to go home, but cannot be discharged because there is no care available for when they leave the ward. A total of 859 patients in Greater Manchester hospital beds were deemed well enough to go home on December 29. Only 189 were discharged though (22%), meaning that 78% of people deemed well enough to go home were left to take up hospital beds.
It’s an ‘exit block’, say hospital staff, as people who are medically fit enough for discharge are left languishing in desperately-needed beds by an underfunded social care system that has no more capacity.