Flu and norovirus patient numbers jump sharply to hit new winter high

The number of people in hospital in England with flu or norovirus has jumped sharply to hit a new high for this season, figures show.

It comes amid rising delays in ambulance patients waiting to be handed over to A&E teams and ongoing struggles to clear beds of people who are fit to leave, with health chiefs warning the NHS is still “in the thick of a challenging winter”.

An average of 2,226 patients were in hospital each day last week with flu, including 84 in critical care beds, according to NHS England.

The total is up 41% from 1,582 the previous week and up 70% from the start of the year.

Flu infections this year are surging at a later point than last winter, when cases peaked at Christmas and fell rapidly in January – although last’s year outbreak saw hospital numbers top 5,000, in what was the worst flu season in the UK for a decade.

Norovirus cases are now running at their highest this winter, with an average of 688 adult hospital beds filled last week by people with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms.

This is up 57% week-on-week from 438 beds, and is up 82% since the start of 2024.

Professor Julian Redhead, NHS England national clinical director for urgent and emergency care, said: “These figures show that the NHS is still in the thick of a challenging winter with intensifying seasonal virus pressures.

“NHS staff have worked tirelessly to boost capacity and execute key steps of the urgent and emergency care recovery plan.

“As always, I would urge the public to get their flu and Covid vaccines if they are eligible, and continue to come forward for NHS services when you need them – 999 or A&E in an emergency, and 111 online for any other conditions.”

The latest NHS performance figures also show that 34% of hospital patients in England arriving by ambulance in the week to January 28 had to wait more than half an hour to be handed over to A&E teams.

This is up from 32% in the previous week and is the joint highest so far this winter,  as well as being nearly double the level at this point last year (18%).

Some 15% of patients had to wait more than an hour to be handed over last week, up from 14% the previous week – again, the joint highest level this winter.

Analysis by the PA news agency shows that, among those trusts reporting at least 50 ambulance arrivals in the week to January 28, the highest proportion of patients waiting more than 30 minutes to be handed over was 82% at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals (468 out of 570 patients where the handover time is known).

This was followed by University Hospitals Plymouth at 80% (421 of 525 patients), Torbay & South Devon at 72% (354 of 493 patients) and North Middlesex University Hospital at 66% (359 of 547 patients).

Handover delays of new patients can reflect a shortage of beds on wards, which in turn is affected by delays in discharging people who are medically fit to leave hospital.

An average of 13,620 hospital beds per day last week in England were occupied by people ready to be discharged.

This is down from 14,436 the previous week, which was the highest number since comparable records began in April 2021, but remains well above levels seen for much of the winter.

Rory Deighton, acute network director at the NHS Confederation, the membership organisation for the healthcare system, said the figures reflected the struggle by hospitals to “get patients through the front door and out the back”.

He continued: “The focus on ambulance handovers this winter has meant NHS leaders and their staff have put in an incredible amount of work to keep patients safe, but ongoing issues in social care keeping patients from being discharged from hospital have not gone away.

“Our members are concerned that the funding pressure across local government is leaving them unable to offer care packages to help people move out of hospital.

“With further reports of local authorities facing financial crisis, there needs to be a continued focus on supporting councils and funding social care so that we can support the domiciliary care sector to manage the demand it is facing and ease the pressure on hospitals.”

Delays in discharging patients are due to a range of factors, the most common being a lack of beds in other settings, such as care homes or community hospitals.

Disagreements between a patient or their family and medical staff, hold-ups in sorting transport and medicines, plus the need to install specialist equipment in a person’s home, are among other reasons for delays.

Adam Brimelow, director of communications for NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts in England, said: “The surge in ambulance call-outs and handover delays when they arrive with patients at the hospital front door shows just how high demand is on the service right now.

“Every ambulance queuing up outside an emergency department is one less out on the road helping the sickest patients.

“These pressures are being compounded by worrying levels of staff sickness and an unrelenting pressure on beds.

“Despite these challenges, trust leaders and their teams are doing everything they can to treat patients as quickly and as safely as possible.”