There has been a 50% rise in the past three days in the number of seriously ill people in hospital with flu, figures show.
Department of Health data from Thursday showed that
460 intensive care beds in England were occupied by flu patients, compared to 302 on Monday.
But the total number of cases is in line with what would be expected.
However, vaccination rates are lower and questions are now being asked whether it was right not to run the annual vaccination advertising campaign.
It is normal for TV and newspaper adverts to run during the autumn, urging at-risk groups to come forward for immunisation. But this year's campaign was scrapped.
Awareness campaign
Dr Richard Vautrey, of the British Medical Association, said: "We wrote to the Department of Health a couple of weeks ago warning about the low uptake. People do not seem to have been taking this year's seasonal flu seriously enough and I think an awareness campaign early on could have helped."
Shadow health secretary John Healey said the government had made the "wrong judgement" in axing the campaign and suggested the decision had directly led to the fall in people coming forward for vaccination.
For anyone with a loved one who is ill from the complications of flu, this is a worrying time.
But there is no evidence that swine flu is getting more virulent, although there is more flu about than this time last year.
Flu viruses kill every winter, predominantly the frail elderly.
Things changed with the advent of swine flu which mostly spares the elderly and causes most serious illness in younger people.
H1N1 remains the dominant flu strain this winter.
It is worth stressing that for the vast majority it causes an unpleasant but mild illness which resolves after a few days bed rest, with plenty of fluids.
Many of those infected have no illness at all.
Read more on Fergus's blog
"The government has backed a public information campaign every year in the last six, investing an annual average of £1.5m. Last year, faced with the swine flu pandemic the last government spent around £15m. The health secretary's decision has left the NHS playing catch-up."
Vaccination rates currently stand at 68.5% for the over 65s and 43% for younger groups that are in the at-risk categories. This is a fall from 70.4% and 48.6% at the same time last year.
It comes amid rising rates of flu. The number of people visiting their GPs with flu more than doubled last week with many among the younger age groups.
What is more, 27 people have died in the UK with flu so far this winter, 24 of which had swine flu which is one of the three flu strains circulating this winter. That compares to nearly 500 who died with swine flu during last year's pandemic.
But this is still within the range that is expected during winter months and while there has been a sharp rise in the numbers in intensive care, the 460 figure still represents less than 14% of the total number of intensive care beds available. The numbers in intensive care are lower in other parts of the UK.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said GPs had identifed who needed to come forward for vaccination and were contacting them directly.
But he added: "It is not clear whether an advertising campaign would have made a difference."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12075039
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