Hospitals under pressure as flu admissions four times higher than last year, NHS figures show
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The number of people in hospital in England with flu is more than four times the figure at this point last year, according to the first of this year’s NHS winter situation reports.
An average of 1,099 flu patients were in beds in England each day last week, including 39 in critical care – the highest recorded at this time for three years.
This is up sharply on the equivalent numbers for the same week in 2023, when the total was 243 with nine in critical care.
It is also higher than this point in 2022, when there were an average of 772 flu patients.
The figures have been published by the NHS as part of its first weekly snapshot of the performance of hospitals in England this winter.
NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, warned the NHS could face a “quad-demic” with norovirus cases also rising sharply.
He said: “For a while there have been warnings of a ‘tripledemic’ of Covid, flu and RSV this winter, but with rising cases of norovirus this could fast become a ‘quad-demic’ so it’s important that if you haven’t had your covid or flu jab to follow the lead of millions of others and come forward and get protected as soon as possible.
There was on average 1,390 patients with covid in hospital beds each day last week.
An average of 751 adult hospital beds in England were filled last week by patients with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms, compared with 406 at this point last year and 318 in 2022.
The total number of beds filled by patients with norovirus symptoms – including children in paediatric wards – averaged 756, up 86 per cent on the equivalent week in 2023.
According to NHS England, last week saw record levels of patients in hospitals for this time of year, with an with an average of 96,587 hospital beds occupied each day.
Officials warned pressures are expected to increase further in the coming weeks.
More to follow…
