Hospitals across the UK are struggling to cope with a surge in flu cases and winter illnesses, leading to warnings for patients to only attend in life-threatening emergencies.
Patients have been warned to stay away from hospitals as trusts struggle with an increase in patients due to the sub-zero temperatures and winter flu crisis. Medics and trust leaders said they are fast running out of bed space having experienced one of the worst Christmas and New Year periods ever while A&Es have become increasingly busy.
East Surrey Hospital and the Royal Stoke University Hospital remained under a critical incident on Friday, following high levels of demand and winter viruses, and frontline medics said they expect the situation to worsen. A critical incident is something that can be declared by an NHS trust facing extraordinary pressure and tells staff, bosses and patients the hospital will not be able to function as usual. Patients have been told only to attend in a life-threatening emergency. Although trusts leaders are not expected to issue black alerts over the weekend – where patient safety is not guaranteed – medics said the risk inevitably increases the more hospitals declare critical incidents, which is expected. Black alerts usually mean hospitals have to divert patients elsewhere to receive emergency care., prompting the UK Health Security Agency to issue a rare health alert. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said this is “definitely a weekend to turn the heating on” and that people should wrap up warm and take precautions when going out. figures show the number of hospital patients with flu quadrupled to more than 5,000 at its peak last week . An average of 4,469 flu patients were in beds in England each day last week, including 211 in critical care. The figure rose by 17 per cent from the previous week and is more than four times the number on December 1, when the figure was 1,098. However, it is lower than this point two years ago, when the figure stood at 5,44
Hospitals Flu Winter Illnesses Health Crisis UK
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