Trust predicts ‘short, sharp Omicron surge’
HOSPITALS’ PLAN IN PLACE AS CASES RISE ACROSS COUNTY
A HOSPITAL trust in Nottinghamshire has put together a “surge” plan for Covid cases as it tackles an already unprecedented level of demand.
Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs King’s Mill Hospital, Newark Hospital and Mansfield Community Hospital, said an additional 80 beds are in use at present, including 18 beds introduced as part of the plan to cope with the latest wave of infections.
The new and more transmissible Omicron variant, which generally causes milder disease, but only among those who are vaccinated, has led to some of the highest infection rates seen in recent months.
The modelling from the trust’s incident control team, which meets daily, has planned that the latest wave will peak by the end of the month, with a “short, sharp surge mid-to late January.”
Speaking of the current situation Paul Robinson, the chief executive of the trust, said: “We have experienced significant emergency demand over the Christmas and New Year period, as indeed has the whole of the NHS, and this has led to unprecedented pressures on our services, teams and colleagues and we are currently operating at a 100% bed occupancy level.
“The number of Covid-positive patients has doubled since Christmas Eve and as of January 5 we had 110 positive Covid patients.
“Our workforce loss has also increased to 10.8%, with six per cent Covid-related. Despite all these pressures and challenged we have maintained safe staffing levels and that includes additional capacity we opened.
“We’ve experienced no increase in demand for critical care beds which has been a positive and we have maintained our planned elective care and we’ve maintained ambulance turnaround times.
“However, what we have done is to take the difficult decision to restrict patient visiting times.”
Board papers point to staff wellbeing being a factor in the absence rate, with the pandemic having “taken its toll” on NHS workers.
Rob Simcox, deputy director of people at the trust, said the trust has employed a well-being lead and a dedicated physiologist to help staff across the three hospitals.
“In November, we saw a slight decline in levels of absence but touching on the pressures we have mentioned we will see absence increase into December,” he said.
“It is worth noting that we as an organisation did benchmark well compared to other regional and national peers, in the way that we have a very person-centred approach to our health and well-being agenda.
“I am proud to describe to you all that we have had some dedicated resource join the organisation in the past few days that will continue to support that wellbeing agenda.
“We do need to recognise how we mitigate some of this absence in relation to increasing opportunities for available capacity to meet some of the surge challenges.”
Also discussed during a meeting of the board of directors on January 6 was vaccination rates among staff.
Most staff members have received their Covid vaccine, at roughly 96% of the workforce, however due to some “vaccine hesitancy” there are around 200 staff members who are yet to receive their first dose.
All healthcare workers must get their jab by February 1.
“There is a fair bit of vaccine hesitancy still around, particularly around those of a child-bearing age, that for whatever reason may feel there is some potential impact on their fertility,” Mr Simcox added.
He says the trust will work with them to make sure they get the correct information about the vaccine going forward.
The NHS says no adverse reactions from the vaccine have been detected in those who are pregnant and there is no evidence to suggest any impact on fertility.
Covid, on the other hand, may put a baby at risk if a mother gets the virus in the later stages of pregnancy.