Figures published today show that the number of patients in hospital beds with flu has risen by 9% on the previous week (2,924).
Health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting said: ‘Today's data shows we are not out of the woods yet. While the NHS is better prepared and performing more strongly than this time last year thanks to the tireless work of staff, the current cold snap is putting fresh pressure on frontline services.'
The average number of patients in hospital with Norovirus and Covid per day was also up on the previous week and overall bed occupancy was up 5% on the previous week at just under 92%.
There were more than 5,100 more ambulance handovers last week ending 4 January (101,177) than the same week last year.
Despite the pressure, the average ambulance handover time (37 minutes 44 seconds) was more than 16 minutes quicker than the same time last year - although was down on the week before.
The NHS has now delivered more than 18.6m flu vaccines this season, up by over half a million than the same time last year, with thousands of appointments still available for people to get protected.
Next week the NHS will send thousands of reminders to parents of children with certain health conditions to come forward for their flu jabs, which will be available from their local GP practice.
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Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King's Fund, said: ‘To create a sustainable health service in the face of winter pressures will lie in more fundamental changes to improve people's health and includes tackling social care reform. This will prove difficult given new visa and settlement rules that are likely to increase the high vacancy rates in the social care sector and leave already patchy coverage even more scarce. The Casey Commission, which is due to publish a Phase 1 report this year, will need to address this and much more to improve access to social care services and the experience of those using them.
‘The year ahead for the NHS will also present challenges and change. The Government will begin to implement the major changes to how the health service in England is organised that it announced last year. That looks set to begin shortly with the expected introduction of new legislation to abolish NHS England and pass many of its powers into the hands of the secretary of state. How effective these changes will be remains to be seen but they are unlikely to provide a quick fix at a time where public satisfaction with the NHS is hovering around record lows.'
Rory Deighton, acute and community care director, said NHS Confederation was ‘concerned that we will see pressures continue to mount over the coming weeks and this will to be a very difficult winter for the health service'.
Chief executive of NHS Providers, Daniel Elkeles, said: ‘Staff are doing all they can to ensure safe, timely care, often under very difficult circumstances.
‘Their efforts – combined with improved winter planning and increased vaccinations – have made a real difference.
‘It's particularly encouraging to see the reduced ambulance response times, but the pressure is relentless and services are extremely stretched.'
