At least 45,000 people went down with the disease over the Christmas period and Chancellor Gordon Brown has already pledged £159m to help hospitals and doctors in England cope.

Health Secretary Frank Dobson revealed on Tuesday details of how the extra money will be spent, including details of the thousands of individual proposals from across the UK on ways to tackle the problem.

Emergency response

London will receive £750,000 to boost intensive care services, with smaller payments going to hospitals in other parts of the country.

The elderly and other at-risk groups are at the heart of government proposals, with suggestions of more help for emergency response teams and community nurses.

More money will be spent on educating people about how to avoid becoming ill in the first place, while outpatient services like night sitting will help prevent needless readmissions.

Among the inititiaves announced by the government are:

• The introduction of "one-stop" clinics, costing £200,000, in Walsall to reduce pressure on in-patient beds;
• A NHS partnership with local authority housing departments in Calderdale and Kirklees to improve heating and insulation in vulnerable households. Cost £200,000;
• Community action teams in Leeds to provide rehabilitation, intensive home treatment, a night sitting service and home care help to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions. Cost £175,000;
• A grant of £150,000 for a specialist rapid assessment scheme for elderly patients based at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxfordshire linking to an intensive community support scheme;
• The creation of a dedicated emergency nurse practitioner service in the A&E Department at the Whittington Hospital, London. Cost £74,000.

"The government has done its bit by finding millions of pounds of extra money to target effort and resources where it is needed most.

"But extra money is not enought on its own. The extra money needs to be matched by extra ingenuity and effort."

Flu to rise

Spokesman for the Public Health Laboratory Service Simon Barber said that in England and Wales an average of 80 cases of flu per 100,000 people per week were recorded up to 27 December.

"I would imagine there was a slight under-representation of illnesses over the Christmas break, so it may well rise in the next few weeks," he said.

"It is very hard to say, but the latest figures show the average rate of GP consultations for flu is 102 per 100,000."