Cases are expected to keep rising over the holiday season (Image: Getty)
People are being urged to consider ditching their Christmas plans and staying home if unwell next week as cases continue to rise.
NHS data shows one in 20 hospital beds was taken up last week by a patient with a “festive bug” – flu, norovirus, or respiratory syncytial virus.
Some 2,504 patients on general wards across England had flu, a 40% week-on-week increase, and a further 125 were in intensive care.
Norovirus accounted for 711 beds and a further 143 closed due to infection risk, for 1,274 and RSV for 136. Cases are expected to continue rising in the coming weeks as school holidays start and families gather for celebrations.
national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said the health service had been “hit hard with an early festive flu season, putting increased pressure on staff as they prepare for the long winter ahead of us”.
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He added: “As children finish school and friends and families congregate over the Christmas period we expect viruses to continue to spread so if you haven’t got your flu jab and are eligible please come forward, and the public should think twice about seeing loved ones if they are seriously unwell.”
More than 29 million winter virus have been administered and the NHS has opened extra hospital beds to manage demand.
The NHS online jab booking service will close later today but those eligible can still visit a -19 walk-in vaccination site or find a pharmacy offering the .
Data on ambulance performance also showed that 34.5% of patients arriving at hospitals in England last week waited at least 30 minutes to be handed over to A&E teams. This is down slightly from 35.8% in the previous week.
Some 14.3% of ambulance handovers, or 13,100 patients, were delayed by more than an hour, down from 16.3% the previous week.
Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, said beds being taken up by virus victims would likely create bottlenecks for admissions.
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He said: “Ambulances are still facing delays handing over patients and there are rising numbers of people stuck in hospital beds who are medically fit enough to leave.
“The government’s new ten-year plan will need to deliver the wider reforms required to reduce pressure on the NHS next winter and beyond, including investing more funding and support in social care and prevention and helping to shift more care closer to people’s homes.”
The Royal College of Nursing said staff were “battling to hold the service together and are deeply concerned about what the coming weeks will deliver”.
Executive director of RCN England Patricia Marquis said: “Right across the NHS beds are full, A&E is facing increasing pressures, while the growing number of flu cases threatens to overwhelm an NHS and workforce already in crisis.
“The situation is made even worse by the strains in social and community care. Lack of care available close to home means more patients are forced to use A&E or are stuck in hospital beds when they are ready to return home.
“As we head toward 2025, the government must show it values the profession through action and not warm words.”