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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Gregory Health editor

NHS faces ‘perfect winter storm’ with tenfold rise in hospital flu cases

Ambulances arrive at a hospital in London
As many as three in 10 patients arriving at hospitals by ambulance are waiting at least 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The NHS in England is facing a “perfect winter storm” with 10 times more people in hospital with flu than this time last year, and ambulances experiencing deadly delays when arriving at A&E with sick patients.

There were an average of 344 patients a day in hospitals in England with flu last week, more than 10 times the number at the beginning of last December.

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