Shropshire MP urges Keir Starmer to convene Cobra meetings to tackle 'super flu' emergency in hospitals
A Shropshire MP has called on the Government to take emergency action to tackle the ‘super flu’ crisis facing hospitals across the country.
North Shropshire MP and Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson, Helen Morgan, called on the Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting to convene a dedicated emergency response to protect patients from distressing conditions which include 'corridor care'.
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The MP was responding to an urgent question raised in Parliament on the intensifying winter crisis which is piling pressure on hospital wards, GPs and emergency departments. It comes amid the latest strike by resident doctors, who began a five-day period of industrial action on Wednesday (December 17).
NHS England data shows a 55 per cent surge in people admitted to hospital with flu in just one week, with an average of 2,660 flu patients per day, putting the NHS into a ‘worst‑case scenario’ December.
In Shropshire, hospitals were already battling to bring down A&E wait times exceeding 12 hours, before the impact of flu and proposed junior doctors’ strikes.
Speaking in Parliament, Helen Morgan MP said: “It is obvious that this year is going to be very difficult for the NHS, with many A&E departments already overwhelmed, hospital wards full and too many patients looking at spending their Christmas on a corridor.
“Will the Prime Minister chair regular Cobra meetings to address this emergency?”
Cobra (from COBR, Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms) is the name given to the UK Government's civil contingencies committee, convened to respond to major emergencies.
Mrs Morgan highlighted how ‘corridor care’ had become commonplace throughout the year, and said that even hospital trusts that have seen improvement in other areas, such as the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust, were “struggling to make real progress” in urgent and emergency care.
She added that in July this year, one in five people who arrived at A&E in Shropshire had to wait more than 12 hours, before the “double whammy” of a record winter flu epidemic and the doctors’ strike, which she called “irresponsible”.
Mrs Morgan asked the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting MP, whether he would agree to make flu vaccines available through an emergency vaccination scheme in communities to reach people who have been missed.
The Liberal Democrats have recently called for such a scheme, which would see flu jabs offered in village halls, supermarkets, churches and social clubs, along with dedicated roaming ‘jab vans’, calling on people who volunteered during the Covid pandemic to help put jabs in arms.
Mrs Morgan added: “Without bold action, our local NHS may reach breaking point. We must get more jabs in arms or local people will suffer. That’s why I’m calling for vaccines to be offered in community spaces to prevent a disaster for our local health services and protect our elderly and vulnerable residents.”
