50,000 NHS staff may be off sick

HEALTH chiefs have warned that up to 50,000 medical staff could fall ill and need to have time off during the coronavirus outbreak.

Thousands of student nurses and doctors are to be drafted in to help the NHS in Scotland cope with staff absences.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said nursing and medical students would be called upon to assist and plug workforce gaps when staff fall ill.

She said NHS modelling showed that the virus could result in an absence rate of between 25 and 30 per cent among health service workers during the peak weeks of the outbreak.

The NHS in Scotland employs almost 166,000 staff, both full-time and part-time, which could mean up to 50,000 falling ill with coronavirus and needing time off.

To help cope with staff shortages, the NHS is now looking at how recently-retired staff can return to work, as well as how those who are almost qualified can help.

Miss Freeman said there are ‘something like 3,000 available nursing students’ and around 800 final-year medical students – who would only be asked to do what they are trained to do, and no more.

But Miss Freeman said they could play ‘an important role’ in caring for those who become sick.

The impact of the virus has already started to hit NHS staff. Two Scottish Ambulance Service workers are in isolation, and a hospital operating theatre worker at St John’s Hospital, Livingston, was sent home as a precaution after he visited a country at high risk of coronavirus infection.