he number of flu patients in London hospitals has seen a sharp rise in a week, figures show, as pressure builds ahead of the junior doctors’ strike next week.
A total of 105 beds were occupied by flu patients in the capital on March 26 – a jump of 14 per cent on the figure reported the week before.
Just 18 beds were occupied by flu patients on the same date last year, underlining how low levels of immunity has led to a more severe flu season this winter.
Nine in ten (91.7 per cent) London hospital beds were occupied on March 26, according to NHS data. In North Middlesex University Healthcare NHS Trust, the bed occupancy rate stood at 98.4 per cent.
Ambulances continue to face delays transferring patients over to stretched A&E departments, with nearly a quarter (22 per cent) waiting longer than 30 minutes to hand over a patient – well above the 15-minute target.
The figures come a week before junior doctor members of the British Medical Association (BMA) stage a four-day strike that is expected to seriously disrupt NHS services.
Junior doctors in England will walk out for 96 hours from April 11 after talks broke down with Health Secretary Steve Barclay last week.
NHS trusts across the country will begin notifying patients on Monday of delays to treatment as a result of industrial action. The last junior doctors strike, held over three days in March, led to the cancellation or postponement of 175,000 procedures and appointments.
The disruption next week is likely to be particularly severe as it will follow the longer Easter weekend, when more NHS staff are likely to be on leave.
In a letter to the Sunday Times, the chief executives of England’s ten biggest teaching hospitals warned that the industrial action would cause “significant distress and delays” for patients and urged both sides to open pay talks immediately.
The Shelford Group, which includes hospital leaders in London, Oxford and Manchester, said the strikes would be disruptive “on a scale significantly beyond that of previous rounds of industrial action”.
They wrote: “We estimate we will postpone tens of thousands of clinic appointments, diagnostic tests and operations in our ten trusts alone; national figures will greatly exceed this.”
The BMA is seeking a pay rise of 26 per cent for junior doctors to restore a real-terms fall in income since 2008. A Foundation Year 1 doctor earns around £29,000 per year, rising to £34,000 a year later.
The Government’s offer to other health unions consisted of a one-off payment for the current financial year 2022/23 worth between £1,655 and £3,789 for Agenda for Change staff in England and a 5 per cent pay increase for 2023/24.
Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairmen of the BMA junior doctor committee, said Mr Barclay had failed to make a “credible offer” in talks last month.
But Mr Barclay rejected the claim, saying the union had placed an “unacceptable” pre-condition of a 35 per cent pay rise.
Speaking to the House of Commons last week, Mr Barclay acknowledged the impact of the upcoming strikes would be “far greater” than previous industrial action.
