NHS REELING FROM FLU CRISIS

85 dead in the worst outbreak for seven years as sick patients swamp GPs

THE NHS is facing its worst flu outbreak in seven years, official figures revealed last night.

The number of patients visiting their GP with symptoms has almost doubled in a week – and is twice as high as last year. The number of dead attributed to the flu now stands at 85.

A surge in cases is putting a huge strain on A&E units and some doctors say the conditions in the health service this winter are the worst they have ever seen.

The last time flu levels were this high was during the winter of 2010/11.

The Government launched a national awareness campaign urging the public to follow basic hygiene principles to limit the outbreak’s spread.

The Prime Minister intervened, urging both patients and NHS staff to follow official advice and get the vaccine.

As the outbreak exacerbated the winter crisis in the health service:

GPs said surgeries were ‘ overwhelmed’ with patients ‘queuing out the door’;

Experts considered imposing compulsory flu jabs for NHS staff;

Figures showed that the rate of hospital admissions with flu rose significantly in the first week of January;

They also revealed that one in five patients admitted to hospital with confirmed flu had the A(H3N2) strain, the so-called Aussie flu;

Senior A&E doctors warned the NHS crisis was now so severe that patients were dying in hospital corridors.

Figures yesterday from Public Health England – the Government’s health protection agency – showed the number of patients seeing their GP with flu symptoms was 37.3 per 100,000 of the population.

This covered the week to January 7 and is almost certainly an underestimate because it included New Year’s Day, when nearly all surgeries were closed.

But the rates were up almost 78 per cent from 21 per 100,000 of the population for the previous week.

It compares to a rate of 18.8 per 100,000 for the same period this time last year.

The last time flu levels were this high was during the winter of 2010/11, when a particularly aggressive strain claimed the lives of healthy children and adults.

Yesterday’s figures also showed that 758 patients were admitted to hospital last week confirmed as having the flu virus – up from 421 patients the week before. This included 240 seriously ill cases who were admitted on to intensive care units, a rise from 114 on the previous week. But the situation is even worse in Scotland where rates have almost reached epidemic levels.

The number of patients seeing their GP with flu was 107.2 per 100,000 of the population, an epidemic is declared when this figure reaches 108.9 per 100,000 population.

There is particular concern over the ‘Aussie flu’ strain. It has been blamed for a continuing epidemic in France which officials describe as of ‘exceptional magnitude’. To limit the

‘Exceptional magnitude’