Carrie Johnson has revealed she spent a week in hospital after suffering from flu and pneumonia, as England’s emergency services battle their “busiest winter ever”.
Sharing a photo of herself in a hospital bed, the wife of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said she spent the first few days of 2025 at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxfordshire after enduring a “nasty” chest infection for almost 18 days. .
“He just came out and was struggling to breathe properly,” she wrote in an Instagram caption.
‘The hospital confirmed that he had flu and pneumonia. I was there almost a week and I still haven’t recovered. It might be a few more weeks until I feel like myself again.
Carrie praised the team of staff who helped her during her recovery, calling NHS doctors and nurses “the best people in the world”.
‘I say it a lot, but they have taken care of me and my family when we have needed it most and I will never stop being enormously grateful. “They are absolutely the best of us.”
‘I was at the John Radcliffe and I can’t thank them enough. When I was particularly depressed, a nurse would even serenade me at my bedside,” she shared.
Carrie also urged people to get the flu shot, saying, “I really wish I had.” This year I completely forgot.”
Carrie Johnson has revealed that she spent a week in hospital after suffering from flu and pneumonia
Carrie also shared that her children gave her their toys to keep her company while she was in the hospital.
Carrie Johnson pictured with her husband Boris. She went on to praise the NHS for treating her.
“There’s no guarantee, but I very possibly wouldn’t have spent the last 3 weeks terribly ill if I had had it,” she added.
The former prime minister’s wife also shared a second photo of a green dinosaur and a heart-shaped princess keychain, which she said belonged to her young children Wilfred and Romy.
‘The second picture is Wilf’s favorite toy dinosaur, “Greenie”, and Romy’s princess keychain, which I was given to take to the hospital and which lived next to my bed. Health and family are everything.’
It comes amid warnings that England’s emergency services are battling the “busiest winter in their history” as flu cases continue to rise.
More than 2.3 million patients visited A&E in December, while ambulance teams attended more than 800,000 incidents, the highest number ever recorded in a single month.
Separate surveillance data monitoring the flu outbreak in England also suggests hospital admissions have risen by a fifth in a week and almost five times the level recorded in early December.
The crisis has already led a dozen hospitals to declare critical incidents, meaning they are struggling to provide safe care to patients.
Experts also fear that the “dangerous” cold snap in the UK will continue to put pressure on hospitals, which are already stretched to the limit.
In 2022, Carrie shared this adorable photo of Wilfred and Romi making a mince pie and carrot for Santa on Christmas Eve.
Wilfred photographed in 2022 wearing a jersey with his name on it while looking out a window
Romy photographed surrounded by lots of gifts while celebrating her first birthday on December 9, 2022.
This same week, the UK Health Security Agency extended its “amber” health alert for colds until 12pm on Sunday 12 January.
England’s top doctor also warned that NHS staff were under “intense pressure” and were facing a situation “similar to the days at the height of the pandemic”.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director of the NHS, said: “It is clear that hospitals are under exceptional pressure at the start of this new year, with gigantic demand arising from this current cold snap and respiratory viruses such as flu.” .
‘All after 2024 was the busiest year on record for emergency and ambulance teams.
“I never cease to be impressed by the extraordinary work that NHS staff do across a range of services in the face of current challenges, being compassionate, professional and doing everything they can to see patients as quickly as possible whilst often working in hospitals that are full. to explode.
‘It’s difficult to quantify through data alone how difficult it is for frontline staff right now; Some staff working in the ER say their work days feel like some of the days we had during the height of the pandemic.
“As the incredibly busy winter continues and hospitals are clearly experiencing intense pressure, please continue to only use 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies.”
NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis warned that NHS staff were under “intense pressure” and were facing a situation “similar to the days at the height of the pandemic”.
According to the latest weekly figures from the NHS, there were an average of 5,408 flu patients hospitalized in England each day last week.
In comparison, the figure stood at 1,548 compared to the same period last year. However, it is slightly lower than two years ago.
Last week, more than 620 hospital beds in England were also filled each day with patients with diarrhea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms.
This is almost a fifth more than the previous week’s 528 and almost 50 per cent more than the same point last year (424).
RSV, which is most common in infants and young children, increased by almost half in the same period in 2023.
Also more than 1,100 beds were occupied by Covid patients.
Some hospitals have begun limiting visiting hours and imposing mask mandates for fear of a rise in “quadraemia” cases.
At least a dozen have also declared “critical incidents.”
Several NHS hospitals have declared “critical incidents”. Pictured, ambulances wait outside the emergency department at Royal Cornwall Hospital on January 4.
Critical incident is an NHS term used by hospitals when they can no longer ensure that patient care can be provided safely.
These incidents are typically reported in response to overwhelming demand or infrastructure failures.
NHS data also showed that more than 4 in 10 patients who arrived by ambulance at hospitals in England last week waited at least half an hour to be handed over to emergency teams, the highest figure so far this winter.
More than a fifth of handovers (19,554 patients) were delayed by more than an hour, again the highest number so far this winter and almost double that of last year.