More troops on standby to help NHS
EXTRA troops are on standby to prop up the NHS after more than 80,000 staff went off sick last week.
Nearly half the absences were Covid linked. Other factors included stress and seasonal illnesses.
Omicron cases are now surging in the Midlands, Wales, the North West and North East with many hospitals unable to maintain normal services.
Major incidents have been declared in Northamptonshire and Staffordshire due to a lack of workers in hospitals, care homes and 999 services.
The MoD has already sent 200 personnel to London hospitals and Air Commodore John Lyle said they were preparing to deploy more elsewhere.
NHS boss Amanda Pritchard said the next few weeks will be “the steepest climb of the pandemic yet” and warned that staff “are not machines”.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on a London hospital visit: “We still have rising hospitalisations with cases increasing in older people. That is of concern. It’ll be a rocky few weeks.”
The latest R range – the number of people each carrier infects – was yesterday said to be between 1.2 to 1.5 in England. Dr Chaand Nagpaul of the British Medical Association, asked how close the NHS was to collapse, said: “As a GP, I’ve never known it this bad. This is not normal.”
NHS England said 10,000 patients fit for discharge took up beds each day last week due to the crisis in social care. Nearly one in four arriving by ambulance waited at least 30 minutes to be handed to A&E.
Leading statistician Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter predicted yesterday that, unlike earlier in waves, Omicron will not cause a similar increase in intensive care cases and deaths.
Cases among the old are increasing. It’s going to be a rocky few weeks
SAJID JAVID AT LONDON HOSPITAL YESTERDAY