The number of flu patients in London hospitals has almost halved (File picture)
(Picture: PA Wire)The number of hospital beds in London occupied by flu patients has almost halved in a week, according to new figures.
There were 258 flu patients in hospital beds in the capital on January 22 – down from 470 the week before.
It is also a 28 per cent drop on the figure reported a month ago.
Health experts have warned that a particularly bad flu season, along with staff shortages and strikes, is among the reasons behind unprecedented pressure on the NHS service this winter.
But Azeem Majeed, Professor and Head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College London, told the Standard there were “encouraging signs” that the flu wave may have peaked.
"The peak of the flu wave is usually January, so this year it came earlier than expected. It was a particularly large wave because we have low levels of immunity because of previous winters with Covid restrictions.
“But this wave appears to have peaked. It's very likely as we go into February, we will see fewer NHS trusts declare critical incidents.”
Separate figures suggest that the pressure on London hospitals may be beginning to ease, with a drop in the number of ambulances waiting to hand patients over to A&E.
Just over a fifth (21 per cent) of ambulances arriving at London A&Es faced a delay of over 30 minutes on January 22. This is down by 11 per cent on the figure reported on January 1, at the peak of the winter crisis.
However, bed occupancy remains high with a total of 92.5 per cent of beds occupied across London NHS trusts.
And there are over 13,500 medically fit patients who are stuck in hospital but unable to be discharged, in part due to insufficient availability of social care support.
Dr Layla McCay director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said of the figures: “This means that we will continue to see patients having to wait in hospital corridors for a bed to become free.
“It’s also worrying to see that twice as many beds as this time last year are filled by people with norovirus cases – a concerning development that we will need to keep a close eye on.”
London has the lowest number of flu vaccinations administered of any region in England, with 2,165,097 jabs given out as of January 22.
But Prof Majeed added: “While London always lags behind on vaccination for every illness, it is protected somewhat by its younger population. Both factors work in different directions.
“Flu probably will recede and won’t come back until next autumn. But with Covid we have seen waves of infection at different points of the year – but hopefully now the population has high immunity those rates will come down.”
