East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS), Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham and the NHS in Northamptonshire have followed earlier announcements by NHS services in Cornwall, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

EMAS said a ‘combination of significant patient demand, pressure within local hospitals, and flooding across the East Midlands' had led to its level of escalation.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust declared a critical incident due to sustained pressures at Basingstoke and Winchester hospitals, including ‘a high admission rate, a high number of infectious patients requiring isolation, and a low discharge rate'.

Royal Liverpool University Hospital declared a critical incident due to ‘exceptionally high demand' on services in the Emergency Department and patients being admitted to wards at Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

NHS in Northamptonshire declared its critical incident due to ‘increased attendances and admissions to hospitals due to viral infections, including flu and wider environmental factors across the region'.

University Hospitals Birmingham said its escalation had followed an ‘exceptional number' of patients with flu requiring hospital admission.

‘Significant winter challenge'

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said the NHS was ‘experiencing a period of significant winter challenge'.

Streeting added: ‘The number of beds occupied by people with flu has been much higher than the number last year and is continuing to rise. An average of just over 4,200 beds were occupied by flu patients at the end of December, surpassing the peak of about 2,500 reported last year. We monitor the situation closely, working hand in hand with NHS England and care leaders, and I continue to chair weekly meetings with senior leaders in social care, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency.'

NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: ‘Frontline NHS staff are under significant pressure and the demand is showing no signs of letting up, with latest data showing flu cases skyrocketed to around 5,000 a day in hospitals at the end of last year and multiple trusts across the country declaring incidents to help them to manage additional strain on services.

‘There was an average of one visit every eight seconds to the NHS flu advice page in the past week and on top of flu hospitals are also seeing continual pressure from Covid, RSV and norovirus cases, as the ‘quad-demic' continues to increase pressure across services.'