More than a dozen hospitals have declared ‘critical incidents’ as the flu outbreak worsens.
Health leaders last night warned the NHS is facing ‘exceptionally high demand’ – with the number of cases already around double last year’s peak.
Around 5,000 beds are currently occupied each day by patients who have contracted the virus. Officials anticipate that the situation will worsen as children go back to school following the Christmas break.
Patients have been forced to wait up to 50 hours in A&E before finally being admitted to wards.
Outside hospitals, lines of ambulances, sometimes as long as 18 vehicles, have developed. These ambulances have to wait for hours to unload patients, preventing them from responding promptly to other emergency calls.
In a pledge to enhance the situation, Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged feeling ‘sad and embarrassed’ by the predicament facing ill Britons.
Meanwhile, some medical staff have been ordered to start wearing masks again in an attempt to stem the spread of infections, and hospitals are imposing tighter restrictions on visitors.
Patients at Liverpool Royal Hospital, pictured, have been told to visit their GPs or to call 111 amid high numbers of people going to is A&E department, unless in an emergency
Royal Cornwall Hospital, pictured, has said its services were under ‘significant pressure’ after a critical incident was declared
Ambulances wait outside the Emergency Department at the Royal Cornwall Hospital on January 4
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS England, urged eligible patients to get their flu jab.
He said those who are vulnerable or have respiratory conditions should ‘keep warm’ and stock up on medication before temperatures dip to ‘dangerous’ levels in coming days.
Hospitals in Northamptonshire, Cornwall, Liverpool, Hampshire, Birmingham and Plymouth are among those battling ‘critical incidents’ – which can be declared when health and care services are so busy that special measures are needed to restore normal operations.
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 face long waits 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: ‘Frontline NHS staff are under significant pressure and the demand is showing no signs of letting up, with latest data showing flu cases skyrocketed to around 5,000 a day in hospitals at the end of last year and multiple trusts across the country declaring incidents to help them manage additional strain on services.
‘There was an average of one visit every eight seconds to the NHS flu advice page in the past week and, on top of flu, hospitals are also seeing continual pressure from Covid, RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] and norovirus cases, as the “quad-demic” continues to increase pressure across services.
‘We expect to see a further rise of flu cases as children return to school, along with nasty bugs like norovirus, which continues to be highly infectious for up to 48 hours after symptoms stop.’
It comes as fears grow over a virus – called human metapneumovirus (hMPV) – that is said to be surging in China.
Data suggests cases of the infection – which has flu-like symptoms – have doubled in the last month.
Speaking on LBC Radio, Mr Streeting said some ambulances are simply taking patients to A&E to die as there is not ‘the right care available at the right time in the right place’.
He acknowledged hospitals might refuse to accept new arrivals as their wards are full but he warned this is creating ‘intolerable patient risk’. The minister pledged to do ‘everything I can’ to ‘make sure that year on year, we see consistent improvement’, but admitted it will take time.
He added: ‘I feel genuinely distressed and ashamed, actually, of some of the things that patients are experiencing and I know the staff of the NHS and social care services feel the same.
‘They go to work, they slog their guts out, and it’s very distressing for them seeing people in this condition.’
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive at NHS Providers, said: ‘Wards and A&Es have been under relentless pressure, with a knock-on effect on ambulance hand-overs, but NHS staff and trust leaders keep doing everything they can to see patients as quickly as possible.’
Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: ‘It is a significant flu outbreak, but the problem is there’s just no capacity to deal with it.
‘So it is really a straw that is breaking the camel’s back.’
The Royal Liverpool University Hospital has been in a critical incident state since Monday evening.
Norovirus can appear similar the symptoms of Covid, with both viruses causing chills, fever and headaches
The longest time a patient waited to be admitted to a ward at the hospital was 50 hours, it is understood.
The Welsh Ambulance Services also declared a critical incident. James Evans, the Welsh Conservative health spokesman, said 18 ambulances had been queueing outside Grange Hospital near Newport, South Wales.
York and Scarborough hospitals are urging patients to attend ‘overcrowded’ emergency departments alone.
Dr Ed Smith, of York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘While we understand it’s appropriate for a friend or family member to accompany with a child or as a carer, for example, if patients can attend alone, this will help free up much needed space for other patients.’
Meanwhile, in Scotland, hospitals are struggling with the pressures of extreme weather and an ‘extraordinary surge’ in flu, with some departments nearing 400 per cent capacity and patients receiving ‘unsafe care’.
Large parts of the country are braced for more snow and ice that could send more patients to A&E with falls and winter illnesses.
The latest figures for the week ending December 29 – the final full week of 2024 – showed just 58.4 per cent of A&E patients were treated within the target four hours – the joint fifth worst performance on record for weekly figures stretching back to 2015.
November 2024 was the worst November on record for A&E waits, with just 65.8 per cent treated within the target time.
Ambulances are seen parked outside a London hospital on December 27, 2024 in London, England
Ambulances outside the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital on January 7
NHS Grampian declared a critical incident in November that saw some ambulance patients diverted to hospitals outside the health board area, and shortly before Christmas the Scottish Ambulance Service put crews on its highest level of emergency due to ‘significant pressure’.
Dr Fiona Hunter, vice chair of RCEM Scotland, said bed-blocking has gridlocked the flow of patients.
She said: ‘The system was already under extreme pressure, and this huge flu surge and cold spell are likely to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.’
Dr Hunter said some departments were ‘nearing 400 per cent capacity – four times as many patients as there are cubicle spaces for’.
She added: ‘Our patients are receiving unacceptable, undignified and unsafe care in corridors and in the back of ambulances. The main issue is that we can’t move our patients into wards or high dependency units.
‘We are predictably gridlocked, in the depth of a winter crisis, and our patients and staff are the ones suffering.’
However, Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray said ‘thanks to the robust preparation and dedication and hard work of staff across the health service and social care, our services continue to hold up well’.
Scotland’s Health Secretary Neil Gray speaks in Holyrood on January 7
There were 1,537 emergency admissions in Scottish hospitals for flu in the last week of 2024 – significantly higher than the 436 in the same week the previous winter.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said Mr Gray was ‘kidding himself if he thinks anything in his winter NHS plan has been successful’, while the Royal College of Nursing in Scotland said health and social care services ‘entered 2025 under pressure and under-staffed’.
Last winter, all adults aged 50-65 were included in the free jab programme but the eligible age was increased to 65 this winter.
Around 1.2million Scots have received flu jabs so far this season compared with 1.6million for the same time last winter.
