NHS remains under pressure as cold snap bites

The NHS is ‘far from complacent’ despite a small drop in flu admissions as the UK grapples with below-freezing temperatures that could put even more pressure on the health service.

With amber and yellow cold health alerts for England being issued and temperatures plummeting to below zero, the NHS is wary of this causing more demand to be placed on hospitals, just as it is turning a corner in managing thousands of flu cases.

NHS National Medical Director Professor Meghana Pandit urged the public to not delay getting their flu vaccines, as demand remains high on both hospital capacity and NHS 111 services.

The latest data shows that 2,676 patients were in hospital with flu in England last week, with cases now slowly starting to fall from 3,061 the week before.

Despite this, the NHS recorded the second-highest number of calls to 111 answered in two years on Saturday 27 December – 87,318 calls in a single day.

“It is welcome news to see a drop in the number of people being admitted to hospital with flu, thanks in part to the extraordinary efforts of NHS staff, with more than half a million more people vaccinated against flu compared to the same period last year,” Professor Pandit said.

“The NHS is far from complacent as temperatures drop with this likely to increase pressures in the New Year, and demand on services remaining high with NHS 111 services recording their second busiest day in two years on Saturday.”

Pandit stressed that the public should continue to only use 999 and A&E service in life-threatening cases, and in other cases use NHS 111 or the 111 online service.

“In spite of all of the challenges the NHS faces this winter, the Herculean efforts of NHS staff and our investment and modernisation mean that hospital bed occupancy is lower than this time last year and ambulance handover performance is improving,” said Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting.

“But we still face intense pressures, and with this bitingly cold snap adding additional challenges it is more vital than ever those eligible get their flu jab and people only attend A&E in an emergency.”

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