HEALTH workers are key to plans to get the NHS back on its feet, said Unison, after new figures today revealed unprecedented demand on the health service.

NHS England data has shown an average of 5,408 flu patients were in beds in England each day last week — up 21 per cent from the previous week and nearly five times the number on December 1.

An average of 626 hospital beds in England were also filled each day last week by patients with diarrhoea and vomiting or norovirus-like symptoms, up from 528 the previous week and higher than the equivalent figure at this point last winter (424) and two years ago (435).

About 20 NHS trusts across England have declared critical incidents.

NHS national medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis said it was hard to quantify how tough it is for front-line staff at the moment, “with some staff working in A&E saying that their days at work feel like some of the days we had during the height of the pandemic.”

Scotland's NHS is also facing very high levels of winter pressure after an increase in flu cases, Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray has said, with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accusing the SNP of having “buried their head in the sand.”

Unison head of health Helga Pile said the system is “buckling under unprecedented demand” and despite the “tireless efforts of health workers across the system … the situation is out of control.”

“Recent government announcements on pay, delays to salary structure reform and to the start of any real change in social care have left staff feeling increasingly demoralised,” she added.

“But health workers are key to plans to get the NHS back on its feet and ministers need to keep them on side.” 

Declaring a critical incident allows hospitals to seek help from other local health systems so all capacity is used, concentrate care where it is most needed and ask some staff to come back from annual leave to work.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Annual winter pressures should not mean an annual winter crisis, which is why this government is making significant investment in the NHS, undertaking fundamental reform and acting now to improve social care.”