England’s emergency services are battling the “busiest winter in their history” as flu cases continue to rise, health chiefs warned today.
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.
Figures show that more than 5,400 beds were occupied by flu patients each day last week, 3.5 times more than the same week last year.
Of those, 254 were in critical care, a fifth more than the previous week.
Meanwhile, rates of norovirus, the winter vomiting bug, are almost 50 percent higher than expected for this time of year.
England’s top doctor today warned that NHS staff were under “intense pressure” and were facing a situation “similar to the days at the height of the pandemic”.
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.
This same week, the UK Health Security Agency extended its “amber” health alert for colds until 12pm on Sunday 12 January. The previous alert was due to expire yesterday.
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 They work 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 look like 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.
“Please use NHS 111 and 111 online for other conditions, in addition to using the services of your GP and local pharmacy as usual.”
Several NHS hospitals have declared “critical incidents” as the health service continues to be hit by flu admissions amid an ongoing “quadraemia” of winter viruses.
NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis today warned that NHS staff were under “intense pressure” and were facing a situation “similar to the days at the height of the pandemic”.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting added: ‘Despite staff’s best efforts, patients continue to receive unacceptable standards of care.
‘Although this winter’s campaign vaccinated more people than last winter, this strain of flu has hit hard, sending more than three times as many patients to the hospital compared to this time last year.
‘Annual winter pressures should not mean an annual winter crisis, which is why this Government is making a significant investment in the NHS, undertaking fundamental reforms and acting now to improve social care.
“It will take time to change the NHS, but the fact that waiting lists are decreasing shows that change is possible.”
According to the latest weekly figures from the NHS, there are Last week there were an average of 5,407 flu patients hospitalized in England each day.
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).
The graph shows common symptoms (green checkmark), occasional and possible symptoms (orange circle) and symptoms that never occur (red cross) with the common cold, flu and Covid.
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.”
These include South Warwickshire University NHS Trust, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire.
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.
Separate ambulance figures for December published by the health service today also show response times have been reduced.
Heart attack and stroke patients in England, known as category two callers, had to wait an average of 47 minutes and 26 seconds for paramedics to arrive at the scene.
This is five minutes slower than in November and two and a half times longer than the 18-minute target.
The average response time for category one (calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries) was 8 minutes and 40 seconds. This is only 2 seconds more than the previous month. The target time is seven minutes.
Ambulance crews handled more than 806,000 incidents in December, bringing the total number for 2024 to 8.94 million, more than 600,000 more than in 2023.