GP, A&E and ambulance teams are struggling to cope with record numbers of patients in East Lancashire as flu cases continue to rocket.

The number of people in hospital with flu symptoms has nearly doubled in the past week in the north west.

Health chiefs said they were around 25 people in critical care beds across Lancashire and Cumbria suffering from swine flu and seasonal flu.

The majority have underlying health conditions, such as asthma and breathing problems, made worse by the cold weather.

So far there has been one confirmed death from flu in East Lancashire, 36-year-old mum-of-three Lindsay Goddard from Colne, and a further 49 nationwide.

To tackle the demand East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has already opened an extra 45 beds in a winter escalation unit at Royal Blackburn Hospital.

According to latest figures the trust failed to reach its target of 95 per cent of patients attending A&E being seen within four hours for the fourth week running, achieving 89.1 per cent for the week ending December 26 and 86.4 per cent for the week ending January 2.

Dr Geraint Jones, medical director, said it had the flexibility to open more beds if necessary.

And he thanked staff for working extra hours and “going above and beyond their usual duties” to meet the challenge.

He said: “The situation regarding serious flu illness is changing all the time, but we have the capacity and flexibility to change our critical care provision in accordance with demand.

“Meetings are held three times a day to check and ensure we are able to meet demand, while senior clinicians remain on call 24 hours a day to respond to any concerns.”

Ambulance calls are up by around 18 per cent on the same time last year.

North West Ambulance Service has failed to meet its NHS target of responding to 75 per cent of urgent calls within eight minutes for five weeks running, reaching just 56.6 per cent and 62.2 per cent on time in the last two weeks.

Nationally, the chairman of the Royal College of GPs has said that healthy people who are not considered to be 'at-risk' of contracting the flu virus should be banned from having private vaccinations.