The number of flu patients in hospital beds across England is more than 50% higher than the same period in 2024, according to NHS data.
A record average of 1,717 patients were in beds in England each day last week, including 69 in critical care.
This is an increase of 56% for the same week in 2024, where the total was 1,098, with 39 in critical care. The number is also higher than 2023, when there were an average of 243 flu patients, and 2022 with an average of 772.
On 30 November, there were 2,040 flu patients in hospital beds across England, which is a sharp rise of 74% from the same day in 2024 with 1,175, which was already the highest on a single day since 2021.
This year’s flu season started earlier than usual and has yet to reach its peak, meaning pressure on hospitals is likely to grow in the run-up to Christmas, when ballooning flu cases are set to coincide with industrial action by the BMA, which could see thousands of resident doctors walking out.
National medical director for urgent and emergency care, Prof Julian Redhead, warned: “Today’s numbers confirm our deepest concerns: the health service is bracing for an unprecedented flu wave this winter.
“Cases are incredibly high for this time of year and there is no peak in sight yet.
“The NHS has prepared earlier for winter than ever before, but despite that we know that ballooning flu cases coinciding with strikes may stretch our staff close to breaking point in the coming weeks.”
The number of flu jabs administered so far is similar to the years before, with the NHS administering 16.9 million flu vaccinations across England between the start of the NHS’s autumn vaccination campaign and the last week of November. This compares to 16.6 million last year and the year before.
Packed waiting rooms are ‘groundhog day for NHS’
“I thought the end was near, I’ll be honest. The thing is, every time you breathe, there’s the sharp pain. And so you’ve got to breathe obviously and it was just giving so much pain.”
These are the words of a patient on Ward 23, the Royal Preston Hospital’s specialist respiratory unit.
Paul Mather thought he was going to die. Still struggling to talk, he wanted to express his gratitude to the NHS doctors who were keeping him alive.
And tellingly, one of these NHS doctors said to me: “It’s groundhog day for the NHS.” ED consultant Michael Stewart was standing in the middle of the same hospital’s emergency department.
It was heaving with patients. Every bed, bay, chair taken. Patients in trolleys lined up in the corridors. The waiting area is packed with people.
And this was on a Tuesday morning. The temperature might be relatively mild, but winter has well and truly arrived for the NHS.
Health leaders were already bracing themselves because all the early indicators from the southern hemisphere’s flu season suggested ours would be challenging.
And the figures from the first winter situation report prove that to be the case.
There was an average of 1,717 patients in a hospital bed every day last week because of flu, the highest on record for this time of year. Cases were 10 times higher than in the same week in 2023 (160), and more than 50% higher than last year (1,098).
And worryingly, there is no sign of infections peaking.
About half, 8.4 million, were administered to adults aged 65 and over, which is comparable to the number of jabs in the last year and the year before at 8.3 million each during the same period.
The NHS is handling a higher volume of 111 calls, receiving 11,338 more calls last week than in the same week in 2024.
Ambulances handed over 99,000 patients at hospitals last week, which is 4,500 more than in the same week last year.
The number of patients waiting at least 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams after arriving by ambulance at hospitals in England is slightly lower than last year, at 30% compared to 36% in the equivalent week in 2024.
About 10% of ambulance handovers – corresponding to 9,580 patients – were delayed by more than an hour last week, compared to 16% the year before.
The overall percentage of available hospital beds is on par with previous years, but it is still below the target of having 8% available beds – or a maximum of 92% occupied beds – as set out in the 2023/24 NHS guidance.
Meanwhile, an average of 261 hospital beds in England were filled by patients with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms last week – last year, there were 751 at this point.
The figures have been published in the first of this year’s NHS winter situation reports.
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Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Winter is a hard time for the NHS, but because we acted earlier than ever we’re seeing progress – with faster ambulance response and handover times compared to this time last year.
“This progress is being put in real jeopardy by the BMA’s leadership, whose reckless behaviour to time industrial action at the height of winter, will put more patients are risk and bear down hard on their NHS colleagues in the run up to Christmas.
“We will do all we can to we can to weather this storm. I am determined that with the proper planning, record investment and modernisation this government is bringing in, we’ll have a more resilient NHS for this winter and beyond.”
