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Flu levels not yet peaked, says hospital boss

John Fairhall/BBC Nick Hulme smiles at the camera outside Colchester Hospital. He wears a black suit with a white shirt underneath that has blue stripes on it. He also wears a navy tie.John Fairhall/BBC
Chief executive of Ipswich and Colchester hospitals says they expect higher levels of flu this week

Flu levels in hospitals where patients are being treated in corridors have not yet peaked, according to a hospital boss.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Ipswich Hospital and Colchester Hospital, has seen full A&E departments over the past few weeks due to seasonal illness pressures.

Nick Hulme, the trust's chief executive, said he hoped the number of patients with flu at the sites would have decreased, but that was not the case.

He apologised to patients who are being treated in corridors, but reassured staff were doing "everything" they could.

"Looking at the weather over the next week of snow with the continuing cold snap, I was hoping that we'd be hitting the peak Monday or Tuesday this week," Mr Hulme explained.

"The epidemiologists and the people who know a lot more about this than I do are suggesting that we may not have reached the peak yet.

"We're keeping a very close eye on it and working with our analysts, both clinical and non-clinical, to see if we can predict if we are going to see any further demand or growth in flu numbers."

The entrance into Ipswich Hospital. A white sign details the hospital and has a blue and white NHS sign on it. Cars can be seen behind the sign parked up in a car park. A multi-storey building and other smaller buildings can be seen in the distance.
Some patients at Ipswich Hospital are being treated in corridors due to high capacity

Mr Hulme added that both the Ipswich and Colchester hospitals remained full.

Some patients at Colchester Hospital had been treated in corridors last month and Mr Hulme confirmed some in Ipswich were now facing the same due to pressures on the service.

"One of our ambitions is obviously to release the ambulances to get out to look after patients," he said.

"The patients who we haven't seen yet, the patients who are waiting at home, or care homes and residential homes to be attended to by an ambulance, are high risk patients.

"So in order to release the ambulances back into the community we are having to care for some patients in the corridor of our A&E departments.

"It's not great in terms of privacy and dignity, we recognise that. It's not a great patient experience and I apologise for that, but we are doing everything we can."

Mr Hulme encouraged anyone attending the hospitals to wear a face mask to help tackle the spread of season illnesses.

He added that extra staff had been brought in to help patients and they were working "incredibly hard to keep people safe".

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