A pharmacy leader has warned that Britons may need to travel out of their local areas to get their flu vaccination, as chemists struggle to cope with an increase in demand—with some running out of stock entirely.
The past few weeks has seen a huge increase in cases of ‘mutant’ super flu—strain H3N2—with health chiefs warning that the UK could face its worst flu season to date.
In a new statement released by NHS England today, it was revealed that flu hospitalisations have surged by more than half in just one week, plunging the NHS into a ‘worst case scenario’ situation for December.
An average of 2,660 patients per day were in a hospital bed with flu last week – the highest ever for this time of year and up 55 per cent on last week.
It means there are enough flu patients each day to fill more than three whole hospital trusts, and there is still ‘no peak in sight’.
The super flu is particularly virulent, and has led to some hospitals declaring critical incidents, banning visitors or implementing Covid-era mask rules, and has even resulted in some schools being closed down.
Those eligible for the free NHS vaccine, including children, over 65s and with some conditions have been urged to get the jab.
The vaccination takes roughly two weeks to offer protection, so the pressure is on for families to get protected ahead of visiting vulnerable relatives over the Christmas period.
Some people have struggled to get an appointment for a jab, sparking panic on social media.
Yesterday, Paul Brand, UK Editor of ITV News said: ‘Just turned up for my flu vaccine @Boots UK to be told there is a national shortage and they’ve run out.
‘Very happy to wait until more vulnerable people have had theirs first, but bit concerning when public health messaging is to be vigilant for a bad flu wave this year.’
A Boots spokesperson confirmed that they have limited spaces available, saying: ‘We have seen strong demand for flu jabs throughout the winter season. We continue to carry out pre-booked appointments and there are a small number of appointments still available for both NHS and private patients in selected stores.
‘Many of our stores across the UK also offer vaccinations on a walk-in basis.’
Nick Thayer, Head of Policy for The Company Chemists’ Association, which represents large chains such as Boots and Superdrug, confirmed that some pharmacies are running low on the vaccine and you might need to shop around.
He said: ‘There is no national shortage of flu vaccines, but the bulk of them are administered in October and November.
‘By the time you get to December some places are running low, and some will have none left from their original allocation.
‘There are a lot of places you can get vaccinated, but you might need to look around a bit – look on the websites for pharmacies, look on the NHS website, if you are eligible for a free jab or talk to your local pharmacy and ask.’
Mr Brand wasn’t the only person left frustrated by how hard it has become to get vaccinated, with many people facing similar scenarios.
Posting on X, users claimed that they had been unable to get their prebooked vaccinations at their local branches of Boots, and Tesco Pharmacy.
One posted: ‘I usually have a flu jab at end of September early October. Everywhere I have tried have run out. I have to pay, my local pharmacy and GP only have some for people who don’t pay. I have to keep ringing pharmacies to see if they have received any each day.’
Another said: ‘Booked a flu jab online 4 wks ago, paid for it, got email confirmation my prescription had been delivered to my chosen pharmacy. Today Boots has cancelled my appointment because vaccine has run out. Who got the dose I paid for and was waiting for me?’
One user urged people to make the effort to get jabbed, or they would suffer the consequences, like they had.
‘If you havent had the flu jab – Itried several times, but my pharmacy was always out of stock – get one. This strain is not pleasant, and I have been constantly sneezing for 3 days, and feeling..’ they posted.
Dr Leyla Hannbeck, Chief Executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association told The Telegraph that despite ‘a big surge’ in people seeing vaccinations, the public shouldn’t panic—there are still plenty of jabs to go round.
She said: ‘The sharp rise in flu cases is understandably alarming for patients. Independent pharmacies across the country are reporting a big surge in enquiries about flu vaccinations and treatment. The message to patients is clear – don’t panic, but don’t delay.
‘Community pharmacies have stock of both the adult and child flu vaccines. Anybody who hasn’t yet had their own flu vaccine should prioritise popping into their local pharmacy to get protected.’
The NHS has also confirmed that there is still time to get jabbed, saying in a statement: ‘There is no national shortage of the flu vaccine.
‘There are multiple vaccine suppliers and multiple effective, approved vaccines available so the NHS has enough for all eligible people who want one. Anyone eligible should come forward and get their flu jab to get protected in time for Christmas.’
Figures released by NHS England today stated that more than 17.4 million people have been vaccinated so far this year—a year on year increase of over 170,000.
Furthermore, over 60,000 more frontline healthcare workers have had their flu vaccinations this year compared to a similar time last year, with thousands more expected to get jabbed in the coming days.
To reduce the pressure on the NHS, the Liberal Democrats have called for an emergency vaccination scheme to be rolled out in community venues across England.
Their plans would see people being able to get jabbed at village halls, supermarkets, churches, pubs and social clubs, along with dedicated roaming ‘jab vans’.
Their Health Spokesperson Helen Morgan MP said: ‘This must be treated as a national emergency.
‘Without bold action our NHS will be at crisis point this winter. Our A&Es were already totally overwhelmed before the flu surge, with vulnerable patients waiting days to be admitted at A&E.’
The mutant flu has prompted six hospitals to declare ‘critical incidents’ amid a record-breaking surge in flu that has also seen Covid-era mask mandates re-introduced.
Hospital consultants have also warned that surgeries have been cancelled because of rising cases, with the NHS ‘running on thin ground’.
Yet despite safety fears, the British Medical Association (BMA) is still set to stage a five day strike next week following a row over resident doctors’ pay and working conditions.
Thousands of medics — formerly known as junior doctors — who are demanding a 26 per cent pay rise, will walk out from December 17 until December 22.
They have already seen their pay balloon by 28.9 per cent over the past three years and each five day walkout costs the NHS around £300million in lost activity and overtime payments to covering consultants.
Now, bosses fear the ‘calculated’ disruption — at a time when hospital staffing rotas are ‘very fragile’ because of upcoming Christmas holidays and winter illness — will cause ‘mayhem’ and also see patients left at greater risk of ‘unacceptable care’.
Dennis Reed, director of senior citizen campaign group Silver Voices, told the Daily Mail: ‘The resident doctors have deliberately chosen the worst possible time for this strike, with thousands of sick and frail senior citizens stuck in undignified and draughty corridors, and in the middle of a serious flu epidemic.
‘What a Christmas lies in store if you urgently need the NHS over the holiday season.
‘The BMA should show some festive goodwill and charitable spirit of the season and postpone their strike until the winter crisis is over.’
Meanwhile, NHS chief executive Sir Jim Mackey has branded the union’s action in the run-up to Christmas as ‘cruel and calculated to cause mayhem’.
Sir Jim also said: ‘This is totally reckless behaviour from the BMA Committee.
‘The timing of the latest industrial action is clearly designed to maximise disruption of patient care, coming just as flu cases are surging and we enter the most dangerous time of year for hospitals.
‘The NHS has done everything in the last two rounds of BMA Industrial Action to minimise disruption, but the BMA Resident Doctors Committee absolutely know it will take a monumental effort to keep patients safe this time, which makes this a shameful decision to have taken.
‘It also deprives hard-working NHS colleagues — who have worked so hard this year on NHS recovery — of Christmas with their families, with many now likely to be called in on their well-earned days off.’
In an unprecedented intervention, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC), which represents the UK and Ireland’s 22 royal colleges, also urged the BMA to ‘abandon guidance’ which states medics should not tell employers if they are planning to strike.
It said that NHS hospital bosses would be able to ensure cover is in place if they knew in advance how many doctors would be off work.
‘Today, there are ten times more patients in hospital beds with flu than there were at the same time two years ago,’ the academy said.
‘If managers were told which resident doctors are intending to take action, it would at least allow them to plan safely for emergency cover and perhaps consolidate resources on a regional basis.’
Dr Jeanette Dickson, chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, added: ‘It’s not for us to comment on the rights or wrongs of the industrial action and we genuinely take no sides in this dispute, but as the body that represents the cross-cutting interests of all medical colleges we are concerned about the impact on patients of a further five days of industrial action at this critical time of year.
‘So, we are calling on both sides to do everything they can to end this painful dispute once and for all and we stand ready to help if we can.’
Dr Chris Streather, medical director for the NHS in London added that, ‘Industrial action now is the wrong thing to do for the public of London.’
Speaking last week, Health Secretary Wes Streeting also said: ‘Just in the last week, we’ve seen 999 call volumes and A&E demand of a kind we normally only ever see on New Year’s Eve, which is the busiest night of the year for the NHS.
‘So the NHS is running hot at the moment, and industrial action is the last thing that patients, or indeed other NHS staff, need.’
He added: ‘But what I can’t do, and what I won’t do, is sit here and pretend to people watching that there wouldn’t be disruption, that there wouldn’t be greater risk, that there wouldn’t be patients receiving a standard of care that I do not think is acceptable.’
Surveillance programmes that monitor the UK’s outbreak suggest flu hospital admissions in England are more than double last year over the same time period and ten times higher than 2023.
Figures show an average of 1,717 beds alone were taken up by flu patients each day last week, up on the 1,098 in 2024 and 160 in 2023.
Of these, 69 were in critical care — almost double the 39 logged last year.
Sir Jim, last week, also cautioned that flu hospital admissions could triple or even quadruple by next week and could require a ‘national response’.
Rising flu cases have led to a critical incident being declared at at least six hospitals in the West Midlands, including Birmingham, Solihull, Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent.
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which is responsible for Queen Elizabeth, Heathlands and Good Hope Hospitals along with nearby Solihull Hospital, issued an alert due to ‘extreme pressures’.
The trust posted on all its hospitals’ social media sites saying its A&E departments are facing huge demand.
Meanwhile, University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM) trust is urging people to only use A&E in a serious or life-threatening emergency.
The announcement covers both Royal Stoke University Hospital and County Hospital, Stafford.
Chief operating officer Katy Thorp said the difficult decision to declare a critical incident would allow them to take extra measures to keep services safe for hospital patients and those waiting for an ambulance.
In Scotland, NHS Ayrshire and Arran has also cancelled ‘routine visiting’ across all its hospitals amid ‘significant pressure’ due to a ‘sharp rise in viral respiratory infections, including flu’.
One surgeon working at Lewisham Hospital told the Daily Mail they had also been forced to cancel surgeries due to staffing pressure and patients who had been struck down by flu, leaving them ‘running on fairly thin ground’.
Mandatory mask rules have been imposed over recent weeks in parts of hospitals in London, Berkshire, Surrey, Lincolnshire, Shropshire and Oxfordshire amid alarm at infection numbers.
Some schools across the UK have also been forced to close temporarily or take extra precautions as a severe strain of flu spreads through classrooms.
A temporary closure was imposed at St Martin’s in Caerphilly, South Wales, after more than 250 pupils and staff fell ill.
Congleton High School in Cheshire also closed on November 26 and 27 after a surge in flu cases.
The school posted on social media that a deep clean was carried out following discussions with the UKHSA’s North West Health Protection Team and the Infection Control Team.
The mutant H3N2 flu strain is believed to be driving the unprecedented number of infections.
The strain, dubbed subclade K or the ‘super flu’ by others, mutated seven times over the summer, helping it to evade previous immunity, sparking alarm among experts.
Next week’s resident doctors’ walkout will be the 14th strike since the long-running pay dispute started in March 2023, and comes after an earlier five-day walkout in mid-November.
However, Dr Jack Fletcher, chairman of the BMA’s resident doctors committee, argued it had ‘no choice’ but to push for more industrial action.
He also accused the Government of failing to put forward ‘a credible plan to fix the jobs crisis for resident doctors at the same time as pushing a real terms pay cut’.
Resident doctors make up around half of all doctors in the NHS.
The BMA claimed first-year resident doctor pay is 21 per cent lower in real terms than it was in 2008.
It wants pay for the group to be brought back in line with the level it was at 17 years ago, when they say their value of their pay started to be eroded.
The claim is based on a measure of inflation called the Retail Price Index (RPI) — this includes housing costs and shows higher price increases than some other inflation measures.
However, the Government says RPI is outdated.
Instead, it uses the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to calculate inflation and pay increases.
CPI looks at the cost of goods and services based on a basket of household items.
Using the CPI measure, the Government says resident doctors’ current pay is fair.
Analysis from health think tank the Nuffield Trust has suggested that pay has fallen 5 per cent since 2008 if CPI is used.
