Flu cases in hospital jumped up by almost a half last week, as staff in NHS 111 answered a near record number of calls. New figures for the week leading up to New Year’s Day, showed there were 5,105 patients with flu in general and acute hospital beds, up from 3,479 the previous week.
The weekly performance statistics, published today, also show that the number of patients in critical care beds with flu increased by more than a quarter (26%) with 336 compared with 267 the previous week. In the same week last year, there were 38 flu cases in general and acute beds and two in critical care beds.
The number of patients with Covid in hospital rose by almost 1,200 on the previous week, with an average of 9,390 patients in hospital with Covid every day. Amid levels of demand not seen since the start of the Covid pandemic, NHS 111 answered the second highest number of calls ever in a week, with 410,618 calls answered, up from 365,258 last week and 382,021 last year.
