The Royal College of Nursing said growing absences meant the situation was “simply not safe.”
NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said staff were under pressure but were “stepping up”.
Downing Street said Boris Johnson saw no need for further restrictions despite the staff absences, as England’s current measures were “balanced and proportionate”.
Approximately 4% of hospital staff in England - nearly 36,000 - were off for Covid reasons each day during the week ending 2 January. That was a rise of 41% on the previous week, and treble the 11,957 absences seen at the beginning of the Omicron wave in the week ending 5 December. When other sickness absence is added it brings the total off to 9% - nearly double what would normally be seen at this time of year.
As of Friday morning, it is understood there were 16 hospital trusts in England that were in critical incident status - about one in eight of the total. A critical incident is declared when a trust is worried it might not be able to provide core priority services, such as emergency care. It means it can get extra help and draft staff in from other duties. On Wednesday night the number exceeded 20, but since then several have declared their critical incident over, NHS sources told the BBC.
NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said Omicron meant “more patients to treat and fewer staff to treat them”. > "While we don’t know the full scale of the potential impact this new strain will have, Covid cases in hospitals are the highest they’ve been since February last year - piling even more pressure on hard working staff. “Those staff are stepping up as they always do,” he said.
I’d guess that the NHS is currently on a knife-edge …
According to a recent report on any given day between 20 and 50% of workers are absent from work due to Covid not just in the health system it is a worldwide problem not restricted to the NHS.
I guess the environment they work in leads to covid infections, it’ll be interesting to know what the percentages of absences are prior to covid.
ETA ,so normally 4.5%[quote=“Omah, post:1, topic:88054”] When other sickness absence is added it brings the total off to 9% - nearly double what would normally be seen at this time of year. [/quote]
Indeed … and the 36,000 off for Covid reasons each day during the week ending 2 January was treble the 11,957 absences seen at the beginning of the Omicron wave in the week ending 5 December.
There was a piece on Look South our local news, about Southampton General Hospital sending out a call for any retired nurses, and getting a good response. Strangely enough, I saw the 3 people in the film crew depart, as I left after visiting my wife, who is in there with a dislocated shoulder, after a heavy fall on Tuesday. I watched that clip that evening. I was not allowed to visit her due to Covid restrictions, so all I could do was leave some bits & pieces in a bag, to be sent up. Apart from missing the old girl, I’m probably the worst cook in the world, so get well soon me darling!
My wifes team sees patients face to face & has continued to do so, throughout this Covid situation & is currently being decimated by covid absences. With nurses, or close family members testing positive. Things got so bad last week the trust was offering a £100 bonus on top of overtime payment per extra shift worked. It is not a job that can be covered by staff from most other areas, so agency & bank staff are not able to be used.
