Flu is putting a massive strain on services across the NHS as GPs and hospitals struggle to cope with rising demand. Health reporter Mike Waites looks at the scale of the problem and what it has meant for one Bradford family doctor.

THE FIRST signs of flu came in the week before Christmas when GPs in Bradford reported an unusually high number of out-of-hours call-outs.

Extra staff were placed on stand-by as rising numbers of patients visited surgeries and admissions to hospitals of mainly elderly people suffering complications caused by flu began to go up.

But it was not until the start of the holidays that services became really stretched.

GP surgeries were closed and people turned to on-call doctors for help but the Healthcall service covering most of Bradford struggled to cope.

People fed up with waiting turned instead to the ambulance service to take them to hospital.

West Yorkshire's ambulance service dealt with more than double its normal number of calls while staff at Bradford Royal Infirmary faced numbers a third up on usual.

Health chiefs were forced to issue an appeal to encourage people to use services sparingly over New Year and pressure has eased since the end of the break as people return to work.

Nevertheless, measures brou-ght in to deal with winter pressures are being tested to the full and beds for medical emergencies set up to deal with the situation in Bradford are full.

The situation is considerably worse in Leeds where all non-emergency operations have been cancelled and a plea has been issued for temporary nursing staff to come forward.

Nearly 700 patients attended casualty units in the city on a single day at one stage, the largest number ever, while emergency admissions to wards were also running at record levels.

Health chiefs in Bradford are stressing the health service is coping at the moment but they are anxiously monitoring the scale of the flu which remains well below epidemic levels.

One GP at the front-line is Dr Steve Urwin, based at the Cliffe Avenue surgery in Baildon, who has seen significantly increased numbers of patients in his waiting room.

He is also medical co-ordinator for the North Bradford Doctors' Co-operative covering out-of-hours services for 32 GPs and 60,000 patients in north Bradford and Shipley.

He said the busiest day had been Bank Holiday Monday when more than 200 patient contacts had been made by the co-operative's out-of-hours service compared to 80 normally expected.

His last on-call shift which usually ran from 11pm to 7am was extended by two hours, involving visits to 14 patients who needed to see a doctor quickly.

He was finding more patients than normal with flu complications leading to chest infections.

"The way we have coped is by putting on an extra receptionist and by doctors coming in early and staying later for shifts," he said.

"From my point of view it's great all the doctors have been willing to do extra even though they have been in their own practices working and often doing extra sessions there.

"It does get tiring for all the doctors as it is a busy job with most doing more than 50 hours a week of very intensive work.

"Patients have really done their best to come to us. The vast majority were very genuine cases with quite a number of people with flu."

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