It's been confirmed: NSW has just recorded its worst flu season on record, with 64 more cases than last year reported across the Hunter New England region.
In the Hunter alone 3,300 cases have been reported.
There are four strains of the virus circulating the country, with almost half of all national sufferers in NSW. It's thought that because of international travel, strains can travel around the world more easily - when there's an outbreak in the southern hemisphere, it almost certainly travels to the northern hemisphere.
Shadow Health Minister Walt Secord says people suffering from flu symptoms are clogging up our hospital systems more and more.
"Emergency departments should be for heart attacks, car accidents, major trauma so when people get really really sick from the flu it puts an impact on our emergency departments and we have a situation where emergency departments around the state are at breaking point - I know that Calvary Mater Hospital has had a particularly difficult time with the flu season this year."
Walt Secord says our hospitals are struggling to meet demand and in the Hunter New England there are more flu-related ambulance arrivals than in Central Sydney.
"The Berejiklian government was caught completely unprepared - the outbreaks have put enormous pressure on the hospital system when they could have in fact embarked on a vaccination program to encourage people to get their vaccinations. So next year lets hope they get a vaccination program started around May so we can avoid this - the last thing we want to see is our hospitals chock full of people with flu symptoms."
