Flu cases reducing but remain high, says Worcestershire NHS Trust
The Director of Infection Prevention and Control at the trust say at the peak, they had over 100 patients unwell with flu in their hospital beds
A healthcare professional at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust says they've seen a significant number of people in hospital unwell with flu, as cases continue to rise nationally.
NHS England figures have revealed there were an average of 5,408 flu patients in beds in England each day last week, including 256 in critical care.
The total is up 21% from 4,469 the previous week when 211 were in critical care, and is nearly five times the number on 1 December when the number stood at 1,098.
Director of infection, prevention and control at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Tracey Cooper says they are starting to see an improvement in cases in their hospitals, but are still mindful.
"Certainly over Christmas and New Year we've seen very high numbers of people with flu," she said.
"Our peak number in our hospitals over that period was 115 patients unwell with flu, which is almost 10% of our acute hospital beds across Worcestershire, so quite a significant number of people unwell and needing our hospital care.
"We have seen a reducing number of people needing admission with flu over the last few days which is a fantastic and encouraging sign, however of course we're very mindful still."
The trust have re-introduced mask-wearing on their sites and limited the number of visitors after announcing they had more than 100 patients with flu across their hospitals.
Cooper added: "Our staff are working incredibly hard to give everybody the care they need despite the incredibly challenging circumstances at the moment.
"Staff in our clinical areas are wearing the surgical face masks that everybody will be very familiar with from the Covid pandemic and we've also done things like additional cleaning in those areas for protection.
"We are asking visitors to wear a surgical mask at the moment during their visit and cleaning their hands when they come in and when they leave, just to help minimise any risk of infection to themselves, but also any risk of spread of infection."