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There has been a 352% increase in the number of people hospitalised with the flu compared to this time last year, NHS data shows.

NHS fears of a potential 'quad-demic' are rising, with the number of patients currently in hospital with the flu now at 1,099 every day last week. This time last year it was just 243.

However, last year's flu season peaked much later, at the end of January.

New weekly figures show the NHS is going into the winter under significant pressure. More than a thousand beds were occupied every day last week with adults suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting bugs, and norovirus, peaking at 1,160 on Sunday. This compared to an average of 591 daily cases in hospital this time last year.

And there was an average of 1,390 patients with COVID in hospital beds each day last week, and 142 children in hospital each day with RSV, along with 756 patients with norovirus - an 86% increase from a year ago.

The flu vaccine

More than 27 million vaccinations have taken place, with England's chief medical officer among those urging people to get the jab.

With cases "rising rapidly", school aged children are among the worst affected. Among those aged five to 14, almost 17% of tests positive for flu - up from 11.5% last week.

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NHS national medical director, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, said: "The NHS is busier than it has ever been before heading into winter, with flu and norovirus numbers in hospital rising sharply - and we are still only at the start of December, so we expect pressure to increase and there is a long winter ahead of us.

My scary realisation while visiting three hospital emergency departments

Ashish Joshi

Health correspondent

I have visited three hospital emergency departments in the past fortnight; one in London, another in the North West and the last one in Berkshire. All three were heaving, packed with patients desperately waiting to be seen.

The winter season has arrived and it's brought with it flu, RSV, Norovirus and COVID. It's been dubbed the quad-demic.

The first government winter situation report has been published and it shows what patients and staff already know - enormous pressure right across the system. Almost all the comparable metrics to last year show the situation is worse, including higher bed occupancy and longer ambulance handovers.

Bill, one of the patients I spoke to, had been in a bed in an emergency bay for three days. He said they were struggling to find him a bed on a ward. He described the scenes inside the emergency department as a "car crash on the M62". His wife, Judi, thought Bill was going to die. She said the "corridors were full of people and every available space was full of people waiting to be seen".

It was the same at the hospital in London. There were dozens of patients on trolleys in every corridor.

Looking around, I said to an ED consultant that "winter had come early". He looked bemused. "It's been like this for weeks," he replied.

The scary thing for patients needing the NHS emergency care and the staff who provide it is that this will not change for the next two or three months.

The prime minister has set his focus on reducing the elective waiting list. But as health leaders warned again today, it's not the only part of the NHS that needs urgent attention.

"For a while there have been warnings of a 'tripledemic' of COVID, flu and RSV this winter, but with rising cases of norovirus this could fast become a 'quad-demic' so it's important that if you haven't had your COVID or flu jab to follow the lead of millions of others and come forward and get protected as soon as possible."

Ambulance delays worse than last year

Pressure on ambulance services is also high, with thousands more patients arriving at hospital this way (up to 90,514 last week, compared to 83,873 this time last year).

But 35,022 hours have been lost to handover delays, up 87% from 18,703 this time last year, Thursday's figures show.

This year, 16% of handovers have taken more than an hour, up from 9% last year. The target for handovers over an hour is 0%.

And more than a third (36%) are taking over 30 minutes, compared to 25% this time last year. The target is that at most 5% should take longer than 30 minutes.

But calls to NHS 111 are being answered faster. There were 413,426 calls to the service last week, with 73.1% answered within a minute, up 4.4% up on last year.

The NHS says it has put measures in place to manage extra demand during winter, including upgrading 24-hour live data centres, strengthening same-day emergency care and offering more falls services for older people.