Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Latest strain on our hospital starts to bite
Hospital chiefs are bracing themselves for an expected surge in cases of what has been dubbed ‘Aussie flu’ with some critics saying the NHS may be unable to cope.
One of the flu strains identified this winter is H3N2 which caused Australia to have one of is worst outbreaks in almost a decade.
Ken Rogers, chairman of campaign group Concern for Health in East Kent, said: “Flu is worse in Kent than anywhere else. If that outbreak gets worse they won’t be able to cope.
“They need to go out and fight to get more staff in the hospitals otherwise the problems are going to stay.”
Professor Paul Cosford, medical director of Public Health England, said: “As we would expect at this time of year, flu levels have increased this week.
“Our data shows that more people are visiting GPS with flu symptoms and we are seeing more people admitted to hospitals with the flu. The vaccine is the best defence we have against the spread of flu and it isn’t too late to get vaccinated.”
Meanwhile, figures this week revealed 120 ambulance patients were forced to wait outside emergency departments at our hospitals for longer than an hour over the festive period.
In addition, almost half of patients had to endure waits in ambulances of more than 30 minutes.
A shocking video also spread online of patients in the William Harvey Hospital queued up in corridors.
Ken Rogers added: “Enough is enough – we can’t allow this to go on for any longer.
“Sometimes up to eight or nine ambulances are outside queuing and then there are people on beds in corridors. But you can’t blame the ambulance service as they are delivering the patients and then having to wait,
“They can’t leave the patient unattended so that inevitably has a knock-on effect on ambulances getting to others.”
A spokesman for the hospital trust said: “Delays in ambulance handover can occur when the emergency department is very busy, so we are working hard to keep any delays to an absolute minimum.
“We prioritise patients arriving at the department by clinical need, so critically ill patients receive timely and appropriate treatment.
“We are working with the ambulance service and other partners on a long-term plan to improve handover times.”
A spokesman for the South East Coast Ambulance Service said: “Handover delays at hospitals continue to be a significant issue for us across our whole region as they severely impact on our ability to respond to patients in the community as quickly as we would like.
“We recognise that improving handover delays will take a whole system approach.
“That is why, under the leadership of our medical director, we have developed an improvement plan with partners.
“We will continue to work closely with our staff, all hospitals and other NHS partners in our area to reduce delays.”