With the NHS bracing itself for a bad flu season, technical editor Kate Woodhead RGN, DMS, examines what’s being done to help the organisation cope with winter and highlights the importance of vaccinations for patients and healthcare staff.
There is no crystal ball to stare into to see what is ahead for the NHS this winter, but the chief executive of the NHS and many media outlets are concerned we have a perfect storm approaching. As we are aware, last winter there were many difficulties not least the number of delayed transfers out of hospital and back to the community which blocked up the system. A number of different initiatives have been taken to try to ensure that during this winter, there will be no such difficulties.
However, the winter flu which has affected Australia and New Zealand over the last few months has been particularly bad. The northern hemisphere is usually affected by the same influenza strains, just six months later. In Australia there have been more than 170,000 flu cases confirmed which was almost two and a half times as many as in 2016, and up to 72 deaths. The spike in influenza is said to be a pattern that plays out globally every 10 to 15 years. As we know, the difficulty with viruses is that different ones circulate each year and we may not be covered by the flu vaccines available. The viruses that are covered by the vaccine can mutate making them less effective.
The current situation
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