{"id":195782,"date":"2025-12-17T03:27:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T03:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/195782\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T03:27:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T03:27:31","slug":"super-flu-leaves-nhs-in-london-facing-worst-case-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/195782\/","title":{"rendered":"Super flu leaves NHS in London facing ‘worst-case scenario’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

London hospitals have recorded the highest ever recorded number of patients admitted for the flu for this time of year<\/p>\n

London hospitals are dealing with an “unprecedented wave” of super flu, and “facing a worst-case scenario”, NHS England has said.<\/p>\n

An average of 380 patients per day were in hospital beds with flu last week – the highest ever recorded for this time of year and 46.7% higher than the previous week.<\/p>\n

More than 1.8 million people in the capital have received their flu jab since 1 September, with more than 65,000 taking up the offer in the past week.<\/p>\n

The NHS in London is taking the vaccine to communities across the capital, including this weekend’s premiership AFC Wimbledon match against Mansfield Town.<\/p>\n

\"Flu<\/p>\n

More than 1.8 million people in the capital have received their flu jab<\/p>\n

Medical director for the NHS in London, Dr Chris Streather, said this “unprecedented wave” of super flu was leaving the NHS facing a worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n

“The numbers of patients in hospital with flu is extremely high for this time of year. <\/p>\n

“Even worse, it continues to rise and the peak is not in sight yet.”<\/p>\n

The winter pressures come as resident doctors prepare to strike from 17 to 22 December, raising concerns about patient care and safety during the NHS’s busiest period.<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Eligible individuals have been urged to get vaccinated immediately<\/p>\n

Last week, there were more than 16,600 ambulance handovers, an average of 2,371 per day. <\/p>\n

The NHS said this was “significantly higher” than this time last year, when ambulance teams delivered about 2,210 per day.<\/p>\n

Dr Streather urged eligible individuals to get vaccinated immediately.<\/p>\n

‘Vaccine fatigue’<\/p>\n

Simon Clarke, NHS head of primary care for Barking and Dagenham, said boosting vaccine uptake in the borough would be “very challenging this season”, the Local Democracy Reporting Service<\/a> says.<\/p>\n

He said NHS North East London was “trying to encourage residents to come along, get their family immunised, get their children immunised”.<\/p>\n

However, he acknowledged the service was working to overcome “pockets of hesitancy in Barking and Dagenham, specifically around vaccinations”.<\/p>\n

Dr Kanika Rai added that the service was also dealing with “vaccine fatigue” among patients.<\/p>\n

“There’s just been so many vaccinations offered last year and this year. It’s getting a lot more difficult,” she said.<\/p>\n

Both Mr Clarke and Dr Rai said NHS North East London had been working with GP practices to provide additional clinics, including at weekends and in the evenings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PA Media London hospitals have recorded the highest ever recorded number of patients admitted for the flu for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-195782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}