UK hospitals overwhelmed as mutant H3N2 flu triggers critical incident and mask rules return
A major hospital trust has advised patients to stay away due to a surge in mutant flu cases sweeping the UK.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham declared a ‘critical incident’ after people with flu symptoms caused a shortage of bed spaces in accident and emergency.
A spokesman asked people with minor injuries to consider alternatives to coming into the overstretched department.
They said: ‘Due to the extreme pressures in our emergency department, demand for beds, and numbers of patients with flu, we have declared a critical incident.
‘Please consider other services for any minor healthcare needs.’
It came as NHS staff and patients have been told to wear masks again in some hospitals to reduce the spread of flu, which has hit hard and early this year.
From today, Frimley NHS Foundation Trust has announced that staff working in clinical wards ‘will wear fluid-resistant surgical masks due to ‘the current high number of flu cases in our hospitals and the local community’.
They follow hospitals in Surrey, Sussex, and Swindon, in bringing back masks in A&E, and other clinical areas.
Surge in sales of masks and hand sanitiser
Masks were standard procedure during the Covid-19 pandemic, where plastic barriers in shops and even facial visors were common sights.
But since ‘social distancing’ was officially scrapped in 2022, people gradually left behind these new habits, including mask wearing.
Rita Arora, a pharmacist with C.E. Harrod in Fulham, London, is now seeing a big rise in sales of over-the-counter flu medications, as well as face masks and hand sanitiser.
‘People are treating it like they were treating Covid,’ she told Metro. ‘They’re employing the same kind of mentality around don’t want to get sick, don’t want to spread anything.’
Masks are so this season
Hospitals run by the Frimley trust include Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Berkshire, and Frimley Park Hospital near Camberley.
On December 5, University Hospitals Sussex also asked all staff and visitors to wear surgical face masks in A&E, emergency floors and admission departments, and any wards with confirmed flu cases.
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, covering Swindon, also put a large banner on their website, saying ‘We’re asking patients and visitors to wear a mask’.
This year’s flu season is being driven by a new strain of H3N2 with seven mutations, giving it an increased ability to evade immunity.
There are currently three times more patients hospitalised with flu in London than there were this time last year.
London Ambulance Service also warned that the last weekend of November they saw call volumes they would expect on New Year’s Eve, their busiest day of the year.
Yesterday, the NHS made an ‘urgent plea’ for people to get vaccinated against flu, with this season starting off early and already causing pressure.
However, some have reported problems getting the flu jab due to an increase in demand, with Ms Arora’s pharmacy seeing 30 to 40 walk-in patients per day this week compared to last week’s 10 or 12.
Great Western Hospitals NHS Trust said: ‘Latest data shows a significant rise in flu cases at Great Western Hospital, with flu hospitalisations increasing by 63% in the past week, and with more mixing and socialising expected in the run-up to Christmas, the numbers are likely to rise further.
‘To help reduce the spread of infection and keep everyone safe, we are asking all staff, patients and visitors to wear a face mask or face covering in our admission areas, including our Emergency Department, Children’s Emergency Unit, Medical Assessment Unit, Paediatric Assessment Unit, Surgical Assessment Unit, The Meadows, Neonatal Unit and Delivery Suite.
‘It is also highly recommended that staff, patients and visitors wear a face mask in other clinical areas in the hospital.
‘Face masks will be provided on arrival to the hospital, for those who are clinically able to wear one. ‘
Deputy Editor
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