Sir Jim Mackey tells NHS England board meeting that flu patients will take up between 5,000 and 8,000 hospital beds every day amid worst flu season on record

Flu will hospitalise more patients than ever before by next week, the top NHS boss has warned.

Sir Jim Mackey told an NHS England board meeting that it’s “reasonable to assume” flu patients will take up between 5,000 and 8,000 hospital beds each day by next week. The previous high was at the peak of the last flu season in January when flu hospitalised 5,408 on average each day. It comes as Britain is braced for its worst flu season on record as a new aggressive flu strain called H3N2 is causing more severe illness even in otherwise healthy people.

Sir Jim, chief executive of the NHS in England, told a board meeting on Thursday:

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