INTENSIVE care units in Worcestershire hospitals are filling up with people fighting for their lives against suspected swine flu.

Health bosses declined to confirm how many patients in intensive care units were suffering from flu-like symptoms at Worcestershire Royal Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, but said numbers were rising.

In a joint statement issued yesterday by NHS Worcestershire, which holds the purse strings for county healthcare and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages county hospitals, a spokesman said they could not give a figure for the number of patients in intensive care with suspected flu because it was “changing all the time”.

Neither organisation could provide figures about how many members of the public had been vaccinated but said 2,148 staff had been vaccinated.

A spokesman said: “We have a number of patients suffering from flu-like symptoms who are in intensive case in Worcestershire hospitals. We are currently awaiting swab results to establish whether they are positive or negative. Until we receive swab results we are unable to confirm whether or not these patients are suffering from flu (of any strain).”

The trust was not able to confirm whether any patients had died of suspected swine flu while in intensive care at either hospital. She added: “Until there is a post mortem and death certificate issued cause of death remains unestablished.”

Dr Richard Harling, public health director for Worcestershire, said swine flu cases had been rising across the country and there was a danger they would continue to rise as children and adults return to school and work after the Christmas break.

“Swine flu (H1N1) is the main flu virus circulating this year. Many of those most seriously affected have been patients under 65 years with long term conditions, including pregnancy. Worcestershire’s hospitals have seen a high number of patients with flu-like illnesses and the number of cases is continuing to rise.”

Worcester lorry driver Gary Prodger remains seriously ill with swine flu in a hospital in London.

Wife Debbie said Mr Prodger had been taken off a specialist life support machine called the Oxylator and was now reliant on a standard life support machine.

She said: “He is making a little bit of progress but they are still saying it can go either way.”

Mrs Prodger said doctors had reduced the drugs which were keeping 41-year-old Mr Prodger sedated and were encouraged that he had moved his arms and legs and opened his eyes in response to his name. She said: “There are positive signs but he’s not out of the woods.”

Mr Prodger, of Prestbury Close, Blackpole, first became ill on Wednesday, December 15, and was rushed to the Worcestershire Royal Hospital a week later. He was transferred to St Thomas’s Hospital in London where he has remained ever since.