CAMPAIGNERS demanded an end to funding private firms parasitising the NHS today as pressure mounts on the health service amid a surge in flu hospitalisations.

NHS figures show that the number of people hospitalised with flu in England has quadrupled in just a month. 

An average of 4,469 flu patients were in hospital beds in England each day last week, compared to 1,098 on December 1.

Over-85s were the most affected, at 88.4 per 100,000, followed by 75 to 84-year-olds (47.6) and children aged four and under (26.1).

NHS England national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis warned last week that the winter flu season was on track to be “one of the worst we have ever seen,” with a “quad-demic” of flu, Covid-19, norovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) piling pressure on services.

An average of 528 hospital beds in England were filled each day last week by patients with norovirus-like symptoms, while 1,184 beds were occupied by patients who tested positive for Covid-19. 

Staff have been left working “flat out” to respond to the rising tide of patients relying on them, Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr Tony O’Sullivan warned.

“Their struggle to manage after so many years of underfunding and neglected workforce and bed capacity, buildings, equipment and IT must surely be the moment of truth for government. 

“The NHS needs every available pound of public money to be invested into the public services from GPs, community and mental health, social care through to ambulance services and hospitals. 

“The wasteful diversion of funding to private-sector companies parasitising the NHS must end.”

We Own It campaign director Cat Hobbs said: “Eighty-seven per cent of us want to keep our NHS in public hands, but recent years have seen creeping privatisation leading to around 10 per cent of the NHS budget being spent with private providers. 

“Our health service is being bled dry by the legacy of PFI contracts signed by the Blair government, haemorrhaging nearly half a billion pounds a year in interest payments alone. Money which could pay the salaries of an extra 12,000 nurses. 

“Wes Streeting is talking about hospital league tables and using private providers to bring down waiting lists, but this is a false economy. 

“Only the NHS trains staff and delivers complex care, so only investment in a publicly owned and run NHS will deliver better patient outcomes.”