Health Secretary Wes Streeting has issued an urgent plea to resident doctors to call off their planned five-day strike, warning that the NHS is facing its 'worst ever winter crisis.' With a severe flu outbreak sweeping across the country, hospital bosses fear that industrial action next week could cause the health service to collapse under the pressure.
Hospitals in England are currently dealing with a sharp rise in flu cases. New data from NHS England shows that the number of people in hospital with flu jumped by 55% in just one week. On average, 2,660 patients were occupying hospital beds every day last week because of the virus. This is the highest number ever recorded for the first week of December.
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