Health leaders in England warn surge in Covid absences threatens patient care

A sharp rise in the number of NHS staff off sick due to coronavirus risks delaying patient care, health leaders have warned, as the number of hospitalisations in England hit a nine-month high.

Government figures show that a record 129,471 people tested positive for Covid in England and Wales on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, NHS England data showed a total of 9,546 people were in hospital across England with Covid-19 on December 28, a rise of 38 per cent from a week earlier and the highest number since March 3.

The number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 in England is still behind the peak of 34,336 in January. The UK government on Monday decided against further coronavirus restrictions in England before the new year after reviewing the latest data on hospital admissions.

But Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the British Medical Association’s ruling council, suggested Boris Johnson, the prime minister, had ignored “the elephant in the room” of staff absence levels.

A wave of infections can knock out a whole team almost overnight

About 43 per cent of NHS absences in London were currently due to Covid, compared to about 16 per cent before the Omicron variant first appeared at the end of November, he said.

According to the most recent official data, on December 19 the number of staff absences within NHS acute trusts in England related to Covid-19 stood at 18,829, a rise of around 50 per cent in the course of a week.

Nagpaul warned that the data understated the severity of the situation as they did not take account of absences in general practice and community services.

Rota gaps due to Covid meant some appointments were being cancelled at short notice and, in some instances, blood tests delayed, he warned.

Some patients were also finding it harder to get through to a GP due to sickness among reception staff. “These are very real issues that are affecting the provision of care both in general practice and also in hospitals,” he said.

Dr Ian Higginson, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said a survey the body had carried out of its members in recent days suggested emergency departments were typically losing up to 25 per cent of their nursing and medical staff due either to sickness or self-isolation from Covid.

The college had also received reports that some staff were having difficulty getting hold of lateral flow or PCR tests that could clear them to return to work.

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital, ambulance, community and mental health trusts, suggested staff sickness may currently be a more serious threat to the health service than rising admissions from the highly transmissible new strain.

In a BBC interview he said some chief executives had told him the scale of absences was “probably going to be a bigger problem and a bigger challenge for them than necessarily the number of people coming in who need treatment because of Covid”.

Later he told the FT that pressures in London were “particularly acute” and trusts were having to redeploy staff to maintain essential services.

Covid-related staff absences were “compounding an already extremely pressured system which is at full stretch”, he said.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of NHS Confederation, said absences due to staff sickness were not evenly distributed: “A wave of infections can knock out a whole team almost overnight.”

Large hospitals in the capital contacted by the FT said services were running despite the staff shortages.

King’s College NHS Foundation Trust said: “Like many NHS Trusts, we are seeing a higher number of staff absences due to Covid-19. However, we are continuing to provide all key services for patients, and redeploying staff in a small number of areas where cover is needed.”

However, Helen Buckingham, director of strategy at Nuffield Trust, warned that the redeployment of workers to run emergency services, could result in “further delays” in non-urgent care.

Patricia Marquis, England director at the Royal College of Nursing, said that in recent weeks she had heard of staff working shifts longer than 12 hours, working on their days off and “as a last resort” having to cancel annual leave.

According to the latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency, on Tuesday an additional 17,269 Omicron cases were reported across England and Northern Ireland, bringing the total number of infections involving the variant to 177,201.

NHS England said it was working to support trusts by, for example, “deploying both clinical and non-clinical staff from arms-length bodies to help with the vaccination drive and in other clinical settings”.