Flu crisis sparks call for critical-care beds

EXTRA critical-care beds are needed at the Royal Oldham Hospital to cope with the surge in flu admissions.

Hospital across the region are being urged to create more emergency beds following a significant rise in the number of flu patients in critical-care wards.

All hospitals in Greater Manchester have plans in place to boost beds if necessary.

Now regional health body NHS North West has asked them to trigger those plans.

The Pennine Acute Trust, which runs hospitals in Oldham, Bury, Rochdale and North Manchester, said it has 17 beds which can be opened to deal with emergency pressure, but it could not specify how many were for critical-care patients.

A spokeswoman for NHS North-West said: “All our hospitals have plans in place so that they can expand the number of critical-care beds in response to demand.

“The strategic health authority has now asked all hospitals to trigger these plans.

“It isn’t clear yet whether the current flu season has peaked, but we need to make sure that we are able to cope if we continue to see a significant rise in the number of patients with seasonal flu who need critical care.

“So far the majority of these patients have underlying health conditions.”

Eleven more people died from flu across the UK between December 25 and 31, taking the total to 50 since October, according to the Health Protection Agency. Of these, 45 died with swine flu and five with another strain, flu type B.

Department of Health figures show that more than one in five (22.5 per cent) of all available critical-care beds in England were occupied by flu patients (783 flu patients) as of January 6.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley admitted the NHS was running short of the flu vaccine in specific areas, but Oldham is not thought to be affected.

A Pennine Acute spokesman said increasing numbers of people with flu symptoms had attended accident-and-emergency departments at hospitals within the trust.

He urged normal healthy adults to stay at home and combat flu and cold symptoms with over-the-counter remedies, rather than going to hospital.

There are no current visiting restrictions at the hospitals, but the spokesman said people should avoid visiting relatives and friends in hospitals if they have flu-like symptoms or other winter illnesses.

He said: “Despite the increase in A&E attendances, we are coping well. The situation in relation to critical-care beds can change rapidly on a daily basis.

“Occupancy is always high but we are managing within our overall bed complement across our hospitals.

“We have plans in place to manage increased numbers of patients.”