ONE IN 10 NHS STAFF ‘OFF SICK’
20,000 more beds are needed ‘No medics’ to man Nightingales
HOSPITALS are creaking with one in 10 NHS staff off sick, a leading doctor claims.
The alert was sounded by Dr David Strain, Covid advisor to the British Medical Association, which represents over 150,000 workers.
The sickness figure includes staff selfisolating due to contact with those who tested positive for coronavirus outside work.
Dr Strain told the Sunday Mirror the “staffing crisis” threatens to derail the Health Service as it battles a huge spike in virus cases.
NHS England bosses last night denied sickness rates were so high, but could only give a figure which was four months out of date.
Hospital bed occupancy rates soaring past the safe level of 85 per cent have prompted calls to reopen the pop-up Nightingale sites.
But Dr Strain yesterday claimed staffing shortages mean there are not enough nurses and doctors to man them.
Just one Nightingale site – a 116-bed hospital in Exeter, Devon – is treating Covid patients while a 750-bed site in Manchester is open just for non-Covid patients. It comes as:
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine says 20,000 extra beds are needed.
Latest figures show 18,227 Covid patients were being treated in hospitals in England on Christmas Eve – just 700 shy of the April peak.
NHS vacancies show a shortage of 50,000 nurses and more than 8,000 hospital doctors.
Sage scientists warn the daily death rate will soon hit 700 without another national lockdown and schools and universities closing.
Dr Strain, a hospital consultant in Exeter, said: “The NHS has been running on just about enough doctors and nurses for 10 to 15 years. So with up to 10 per cent of healthcare workers off sick, there are no longer enough. It is why we can’t open the Nightingale hospitals.” He added that the “wartime spirit” shown by medics working 90-hour weeks in the first wave was “not sustainable”, and said burnout is contributing to current sickness levels.
Official figures yesterday showed a further 161 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England have died – although the real number is likely to be higher due to reporting delays.
Adrian Boyle, vice president of the RCEM, said of the beds shortage: “You couldn’t get a worse situation.”
Labour MP Justin Madders said now is the time to look at using the Nightingales, adding: “Ministers always knew this would be the time they were needed most so there should be no excuses for not adequately preparing.”
An NHS spokesman said the latest published figures on staff sickness were for August, when the rate was 3.95 per cent.
She said that because hospitals are split into Covid and non-Covid zones to protect patients “some beds cannot be used”.
She added: “Trying to compare current occupancy figures with those from before the pandemic is like comparing apples and pears.
“All of the Nightingales in England are ready to support resilience in the NHS.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Latest NHS data shows there are currently fewer staff absences than the first wave in April. Staff vacancies are falling with 13,300 more nurses and 6,000 more doctors working in the NHS in the last year.”