Winter flu plunges hospitals into chaos
Fears of overload on ambulances as A&E doctors warn they are running out of space
HOSPITALS are running out of space in corridors with a sudden rise in flu cases throwing the NHS into winter chaos, senior doctors have warned.
Yesterday patients were urged to only call 999 if their situation was “lifethreatening or extremely serious” in an attempt to ease strain on overloaded paramedic crews.
Ambulance services warned they were under heavy pressure even before New Year’s Eve – traditionally their busiest night of the year. And senior doctors said some A&E units had become so overcrowded that they had run out of corridor space for patients, amid waits of more than 12 hours.
NHS surveillance suggests flu cases have risen by 67 per cent in a week in England – meaning around 3.7 million adults came down with symptoms over the Christmas period.
Dr Nick Scriven, president of the Society for Acute Medicine said pressures had “escalated rapidly” in the days since Boxing Day.
“We are on the cusp of a major issue at least as bad as last year when it was described by the Red Cross as a humanitarian crisis,” he said.
The data held by Public Health England shows the flu season is now under way across England, Scotland and Wales, with a significant increase in deaths in Scotland. Officials had already warned they were “more scared than we have ever been” about the risk of a heavy flu season, if Britain follows Australia in being hit by the worst outbreak in nearly two decades.
Experts fear that current flu vaccines may have little or no effects on the elderly, although they are likely to be more protective to younger people.
Officials have written to GPS promising to offer a new “superjab” to older patients from next autumn.
However, senior doctors say the NHS is already in chaos, even though flu levels have only just crossed the threshold that marks the start of the season.
They raised fears of the worst winter crisis for more than 15 years, as:
♦ Doctors at one of the country’s busiest A&E units warned they had run out of corridors for patients to wait in;
♦ Ambulance services warned of “very high levels of demand” and urged the public to only call 999 in life-threatening or extremely serious cases;
♦ Nurses and GPS were told they may be sent out to answer 999 calls ahead of ambulance crews in a bid to ease “significant pressures” in some areas.
The A&E consultant at University Hospitals of North Midlands said patients had already been waiting up to 12 hours to see a doctor. The trust yesterday urged the public to avoid A&E if they could.
Ahead of New Year’s Eve, ambulance services across the country warned that they were already experiencing very high levels of demand. London Ambulance Service urged the public to “only call us in a life threatening emergency” with at least 500 calls an hour expected in today’s early hours.
A string of NHS trusts have made similar pleas over the weekend, with
DRUG dealers are increasingly using social media sites such as Instagram and Snapchat to sell illegal substances to young people, experts have warned.
Youth workers said the “disturbing” trend had rapidly accelerated within the last 18 months, with dealers using the platforms to target children as young as 13.
They expressed fears that young people were buying drugs from strangers, who did not care about their welfare, as well as meeting up with people they did not know.
Nick Hickmott, the early intervention lead for Young Addaction, the youth arm of the largest drug and alcohol
‘There is still a lot of violence, robbery and non-delivery of goods ... because there is essentially no comeback’
charity, told The Daily Telegraph that dozens of cannabis communities were run via Instagram whilst those buying other substances such as pills and powders had no way of knowing what the product actually contained.
“Buying drugs via social media means you are just believing the profile and either sending money blindly or meeting a stranger,” he said.
Drug dealers use hashtags and emoji to indicate which drugs they sell and share images of the substances. They provide alternative contact details which allow most deals to take place on other platforms such as the encrypted messenger application Wickr, which is untraceable by the authorities.
Mr Hickmott added: “With cannabis, there has been an attempt to regulate the illicit market by having a system in which people can buy from vendors and be guaranteed a high quality product. In reality though, there is still a lot of violence, robbery and non-delivery of goods in this so called ‘community’ because there is essentially no comeback.”
Mr Hickmott told The Guardian that almost all the young people they worked with, most of them teenagers, talked about the phenomenon. “Essentially, if a dealer knows you, they are far less likely to want to see you ripped off or end up in hospital,” he added.
He said party drugs such as MDMA and ecstasy were particularly prevalent online but that benzodiazepines such as Xanax were also sold.
Instagram said it encouraged people to report any content that could violate its guidelines. A spokesman said: “The Instagram community must follow the law and the sale of illegal or prescription drugs, even if legal in a specific region, is not allowed. Our global review team checks these reports 24/7, and as soon as we are made aware of violating content we work quickly to remove it.”
Snapchat said it took its responsibility to create a safe and secure experience seriously and had an active trust and safety team that responded to reports and concerns within 24 hours.
Meanwhile Facebook reacted angrily after Ben Wallace, the security minister, suggested that web companies were putting profit before safety.
He said “patience is running out fast” with web companies who do not help the fight against terrorism, adding: “If they continue to be less than cooperative, we should look at things like tax as a way of incentivising them or compensating for their inaction”.
Simon Milner, of Facebook, said: “Mr Wallace is wrong to say that we put profit before safety, especially in the fight against terrorism. We’ve invested millions of pounds ... to identify and remove terrorist content.”