Mask-wearing returns to hospitals amid flu chaos as at the very least 7 NHS trusts declare crucial incidents

Mask-wearing is returning to some hospitals as at least seven NHS trusts have declared critical incidents.

England’s top doctor says the flu surge means hospital “demand is showing no signs of letting up” before an expected peak in the next week or so. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust declared critical incidents on Tuesday, followed by NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust – where mask-wearing has been reintroduced across its departments.

Margaret Garbett, chief nurse at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This significant and sustained pressure is due in part to exceptional numbers of patients with flu requiring admission to hospital, this has now reached 311 inpatients and measures including mask-wearing in all departments is also being introduced. Despite expanding capacity in our wards and in our emergency departments, A&E remains overcrowded with extended waits to be seen.”

Compulsory mask-wearing was last week introduced at Worcestershire hospitals amid “one of the most difficult” winters ever for the trust running the sites. Many more are encouraging their use by staff and patients.

The Royal Liverpool University Hospital remains in critical incident following an announcement by NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group on Monday evening.

In its statement, the University Hospitals of Liverpool said: “If you are attending our EDs, patients and visitors should follow some additional infection control measures to help curb the spread of winter viruses such as flu and norovirus. This includes practicing good hand hygiene, only visiting the areas they need to in our hospitals and wearing masks in clinical areas if asked to do so.”

East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust also declared a critical incident on Monday evening. A critical incident declared by NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly on Friday continued on Tuesday. Declaring a critical incident, external enables the NHS to prioritise urgent care, minimise disruptions to outpatient appointments and planned operations, and expand capacity where possible.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he feels “ashamed” at the experiences of some patients in the NHS, admitting that some patients are being taken to hospital “to die”. Mr Streeting said that he felt “emotional” to hear about long waits and patients being passed from ambulance to ambulance.

Speaking on LBC Radio, Mr Streeting said: “It breaks my heart because… I’ve seen this when I’ve been shadowing the ambulance service on ride outs – we are taking people in ambulances to emergency departments to die because then there isn’t the right care available at the right time in the right place, including end-of-life care.”

Mr Streeting went on: “When I hear you describe an 88-year-old woman going from ambulance to ambulance to ambulance to ambulance, I felt the same emotional reaction I went felt when I was going around one of my local hospitals just before Christmas – when I went in, they said: ‘You are here on a fairly good day, it’s not too bad today.’”

The Secretary of State pledged to do “everything I can” to “make sure that year-on-year, we see consistent improvement” but he said that it will “take time”.

NHS England medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: “Frontline NHS staff are under significant pressure and the demand is showing no signs of letting up, with latest data showing flu cases skyrocketed to around 5,000 a day in hospitals at the end of last year and multiple trusts across the country declaring incidents to help them to manage additional strain on services. There was an average of one visit every eight seconds to the NHS flu advice page in the past week and on top of flu hospitals are also seeing continual pressure from Covid, RSV and norovirus cases, as the ‘quad-demic’ continues to increase pressure across services.”

People hospitalised with the flu has quadrupled in a month amid a so-called “quad-demic” along with norovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Covid-19. Over 4,000 people spent Christmas Day in a hospital bed after falling seriously unwell with flu, then over 5,000 hospital beds were taken up with flu patients over the New Year period.

Hospitals are coming under huge pressure during the current cold snap due to falls and heart problems.

A number of trusts have posted on social media site X to warn that their emergency departments are very busy, including Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust. Meanwhile hospitals in Lincolnshire have urged people in the county to avoid travel where possible.

Prof Powis added: “I’d like to thank NHS staff who continue to work tirelessly to keep patients safe and provide them with the best possible care. Anyone who needs medical support should continue to use services as normal – the NHS website, NHS 111 and 111 online are available if you need advice and support for health conditions, community services like GPs and pharmacies are open as usual for help and advice, while you can use 999 or attend A&E in life-threatening emergencies.”

Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “This flu season is not an outlier, but the problem is our emergency care system is so overwhelmed and fragile that a normal flu season – which is what we’ve got at the moment – is creating severe operational difficulties. And it would be a mistake to think that this is solely a result of winter viruses. We have been chronically overloaded and overwhelmed for a number of years. It is a significant flu outbreak, but the problem is there’s just no capacity to deal with it. So it is really a straw that is breaking the camel’s back.”

He added: “It’s important in terms of public safety that people seek help in the usual way. If they think they’re having an emergency, they should call 999. Likewise, they should try and contact their GP, or NHS 111. People will be seen but they may have long delays, either to be seen or if they need to be admitted, but we will try and do our absolute best to look after people.”