The NHS has said it’s facing a ‘worst case scenario’ situation for December amid a ‘super flu’ surge and with thousands of resident doctors potentially going on strike from 17-22 December if the latest offer is not accepted.
An average of 2,660 patients per day were in a hospital bed with flu last week – the highest ever for this time of year and the number of norovirus patients in hospital beds has also risen by 35%, according to the latest figures.
This means there were enough flu patients each day to fill more than three whole hospital trusts, in addition an average of 354 norovirus patients per day.
Monthly figures last week showed A&E attendances were a record for November at 2.35 million and more than 30,000 higher than November 2024, while there were 48,814 more ambulance incidents compared to last year (802,525 compared to 753,711).
Resident doctors are due to go on strike this week, however the Government put a new offer to the BMA last week to try and avoid strike action. The BMA is consulting on this, with a survey of members closing today (15 December).
NHS national medical director, Professor Meghana Pandit said: ‘The numbers of patients in hospital with flu is extremely high for this time of year. Even worse, it continues to rise and the peak is not in sight yet, so the NHS faces an extremely challenging few weeks ahead.
‘NHS staff have pulled out all the stops to vaccinate more people than last year, and I would urge anyone eligible for the vaccine to please book an appointment or visit a walk-in site as soon as possible.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title The Pharmacist.
