Flu season is at its peak. Premier Daniel Andrews has promised extra funding to fix the problem, but the huge flu season has seen it return. Ambulance Employees Association Victorian assistant secretary Danny Hill said some paramedics had reported being diverted to other hospitals. Mr Hill said there had been instances of "ramping" this month in which hospitals are so busy that ambulances must wait in queues before unloading patients. "We are seeing ramping and we are seeing crews unable to respond to cases because they're queued up at a hospital," he said. "This flu season has been particularly bad. It is causing a lot of delays."

Chief health officer Professor Charles Guest called on Victorians to be mindful of the increased load on the healthcare system. "The whole health system is extended by this problem. That goes from ambulances to emergency departments to inpatient wards to GPs." This week saw the season peak, with almost 30,000 confirmed cases in the past nine days. With a month of the season left, Australia is only 110 confirmed influenza infections away from smashing the record for the largest number of cases in a year. The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services says it has been notified of 177 flu outbreaks in child-care centres, hospitals and aged-care homes this year, up from 77 for the same period last year. As of Friday, there had been 100,480 confirmed cases of influenza in Australia this year, according to data from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. That is up from 71,256 in little more than a week.

That number represents only cases in which a sufferer has been to their doctor and received a diagnosis. The real number is much higher, health authorities say. The previous record season was 2015 when 100,590 cases were recorded for the entire year. Statistics on flu infection cases are only reliable for the past 15 years, authorities say. Flu season generally peaks between July and September, before dropping off in October. For many, flu leads to a mild case of the sniffles, fever and a cough. But for the very young and very old, as well as pregnant women, influenza can be lethal because it can lead to such complications as pneumonia. Government data for the June quarter – pre flu season – shows a 39 per cent increase in patients presenting at emergency with the flu compared to the same quarter in 2016. Total emergency department presentations almost topped 450,000 between April and June, a health department spokesman said. "All the health system is under significant pressure. The volume has caught us a little by surprise, it's much greater and it came earlier than we would expect," Mr Stephenson said.

Loading Mr Stephenson said the influx meant patients with less-serious conditions faced longer wait times for an ambulance. Three people, aged 81, 94 and 103, died last month after an influenza outbreak in their Mulgrave nursing home.