A leading NHS doctor has issued a warning that the peak of the flu season is yet to hit, as hospital wards are ‘full to bursting’. This comes in the wake of several NHS trusts declaring critical incidents due to sustained pressure in A&E departments, with patients being treated in corridors and one patient at a hospital having to wait 50 hours for ward admission.
Some hospitals have limited visitor numbers, while others are urging people to wear surgical masks to curb the spread of viruses. According to Professor Julian Redhead, NHS national clinical director for urgent and emergency care, there are approximately 5,000 patients in hospital with flu in England.
He told the PA news agency: “Wards are now full to bursting and that pressure is feeding back into A&E departments, with patients being treated in environments not usually used for clinical care. Most patients would recognise when they’re being treated in a corridor but those aren’t the environments we would want to treat patients in. That is difficult for colleagues and patients who are treated in that environment.”
Prof Redhead also mentioned that there is “some evidence” that the flu season may be peaking, but cautioned: “We’ve also got schools going back and that can cause different social mixing.”
He predicted a peak in the coming weeks, stating: “It’s too early to say it’s definitively peaked. I would hope there would be a peak in the next one to two weeks.
“But we’ve also got that cold snap at the moment, which will also put pressure on emergency services. We have pressure in emergency care all year round but the winter, with the added pressures of flu and other viruses, really makes that a really stark feeling of pressure.”
Leading nurses expressed their concern, stating that the “prospect of the situation worsening will fill nursing staff with dread” as they called for mandatory reporting of corridor care. In recent days, hospitals in Northamptonshire, Cornwall, Liverpool, Hampshire, Birmingham, Plymouth and the Wirral have declared critical incidents.
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust declared a critical incident on Wednesday, with a statement on its website saying attendances at Warwick Hospital’s emergency department in the last week “have been consistently some of the highest” ever experienced. The NHS in Gloucestershire also declared a critical incident, with a live AandE tracker on the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s website warning patients that the average time spent in the emergency department at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital is 13 hours.
The Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has declared a critical incident on Wednesday, citing “unprecedented demand” for urgent and emergency services this week, alongside a surge in flu cases, according to a spokesperson. In a similar vein, the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust announced its first-ever critical incident on Monday due to a mix of “significant patient demand, pressure within local hospitals and flooding”, although it was stood down by Wednesday morning.
Critical incidents are called when health services face such intense pressure that extraordinary measures are necessary to maintain patient safety and return to regular service levels. In other developments, York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has appealed for public cooperation, asking individuals to attend medical appointments unaccompanied where feasible.
North Bristol NHS Trust is also advising both the public and staff to don surgical face masks in its “emergency zone” to curb infection risks. Moreover, East Sussex Hospitals Trust took preventive action on Tuesday by restricting visitors to one per patient each day to mitigate flu’s impact, with certain exceptions allowed for situations like end-of-life care and special baby care units. Recent NHS figures have highlighted a worrying trend, showing that hospitalisations due to flu in England have quadrupled compared to the previous month, prompting health officials to express alarm over the rapidly escalating case numbers.
Data expected to be released later this week is anticipated to reveal a further increase in hospital admissions due to flu. Prof Redhead commented that “in general, most patients coming into hospital are elderly”, although younger individuals with chronic conditions such as asthma are also seeking care.
“The flu and cold weather usually affects the elderly and most vulnerable, they are the patients coming into hospitals,” he observed. He further noted: “In my own experience, it’s generally patients who have not had a vaccine or have underlying conditions which means the vaccine hasn’t provided the underlying protection we would hope.”
Patricia Marquis, the Royal College of Nursing’s executive director for England, said: “Nursing staff are doing their best to hold the service together, but their job is nigh-on impossible in an overwhelmed system. Patients are lining corridors up and down the country and top NHS doctors admit care standards are failing.
“The prospect of the situation worsening will fill already exhausted nursing staff with dread. Ministers must step in and introduce system-wide reporting of all instances of care in places like corridors so we can fully understand the scale of the crisis hitting the health system.”
On Tuesday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting expressed his feelings of being “distressed and ashamed” upon hearing about the experiences some patients are enduring within the NHS. One patient at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital was forced to endure a wait of over two days in A&E.
On Wednesday, Saffron Cordery, the interim chief executive of NHS Providers, informed BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the NHS is under significant strain, with flu cases being 246% higher than last year. She praised the NHS staff for their “absolutely valiant effort in order to keep patients safe”.
She continued: “I think what we need to do is recognise that these are really long-standing challenges that the NHS is facing in terms of workforce, shortage of workforce, the critical need to reform and properly invest in social care, and also to think more about prevention.”
Non-urgent patients have been cautioned that they may face lengthy waits in A&E and have been advised to “consider other options” such as contacting their GP, visiting a pharmacy or calling NHS 111. However, Ms Cordery stressed that patients experiencing a life-threatening emergency should still call 999. “We don’t want that situation where people are choosing not to call 999 when they really need it,” she stated.
Prof Redhead added: “A&Es are open for patients who need us. Though there may be waits, the vital treatment is generally being given in a timely manner.”
He also encouraged communities to “come together” during the cold snap to ensure the most vulnerable are cared for.