Private hospitals help in Vic flu attack

Victorian private hospitals have agreed to take public patients who are stricken by the flu so badly they need to be taken to hospital by ambulance.

The state is facing one of its worst-ever flu seasons with more than 13,000 confirmed cases compared to 7365 at the same time last year, including eight deaths in a regional nursing home.

Ambulance Victoria will assess patients, monitoring pressure points in public hospital emergency departments and determine when it is appropriate to take patients to participating private hospital emergency departments, including Cabrini in Malvern, Epworth and St John of God in Geelong.