{"id":673773,"date":"2026-01-04T18:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/673773\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T18:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:08:18","slug":"dozens-of-flu-patients-in-the-royal-free-london-over-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/673773\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens of flu patients in the Royal Free London over Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

37 flu patients were being treated each day in the week to 28th December by the main hospital trust covering Barnet reports Sonja Tutty, Data Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"BarnetBarnet Hospital is part of Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust<\/p>\n

Dozens of flu patients were being treated by the Royal Free London over the Christmas week, new figures show.<\/p>\n

The NHS said the drop in temperature is likely to increase pressures in the new year, adding it is \u201cnot too late\u201d for people to get the flu vaccine.<\/p>\n

The most recent NHS winter situation report<\/a> shows an average of 37 flu patients were being treated by Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust each day in the week to 28th December, with three in critical care.<\/p>\n

It was down slightly from 39\u00a0flu patients\u00a0treated by the trust\u00a0the week before.<\/p>\n

Across England<\/a>, an average of 2,676 flu patients were in hospital each day during the Christmas week, down 13% from the previous week.<\/p>\n

The figure had previously been on an upwards trend, reaching 3,140 in the week ending 14th December.<\/p>\n

Some 128 flu patients were in critical care beds in England last week, up from 117 the previous week.<\/p>\n

Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS national medical director, said: \u201cIt is welcome news to see a drop in the number of people being admitted to hospital with flu, thanks in part to the extraordinary efforts of NHS staff with more than half a million more people vaccinated against flu compared to the same period last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NHS is far from complacent as temperatures drop with this likely to increase pressures in the new year, and demand on services remaining high with NHS 111 services recording their second busiest day in two years on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it is \u201cvital\u201d the public continue to only use 999 and A&E in life-threatening emergencies.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIf you haven\u2019t had your flu jab yet and are eligible, please come forward \u2013 it\u2019s not too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snow and ice are forecast across the country on Friday, with amber snow warnings for northern Scotland beginning at midday before freezing weather moves over parts of England and Wales.<\/p>\n

Rory Deighton, acute and community care director at the NHS Confederation, said the fall in flu levels is \u201cwelcome after the very early sharp spike in cases\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis is due in part to NHS leaders and their teams working incredibly hard to get as many patients as possible home for Christmas. However, this does not mean the pressure on the NHS is easing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemand for NHS care remains high, with 24,000 more calls to 111 than the previous week and thousands of hospital beds still taken up by patients with flu and other seasonal viruses.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added the cold snap comes as the NHS enters some of the busiest weeks of the year, with flu levels at risk of rising as children go back to school and people return to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth leaders and their teams will be doing everything they can to ensure patients are kept safe over the next few weeks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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More Information about donations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"37 flu patients were being treated each day in the week to 28th December by the main hospital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,43583,4884,105,2207,257,211,133054,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-673773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-flu","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-hospitals","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-nhs","16":"tag-royal-free-london-nhs-foundation-trust","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115838170438003881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}