Hospital staff under rising pressure as absences rocket
WORK DAYS LOST RISE BY 87 PER CENT IN TWO WEEKS AND AMBULANCE HANDOVER TIMES ALSO WORSEN
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THE latest NHS England figures give an update on how hospital trusts were coping with pressures in the week to Boxing Day.
While the festive season may have seen some improvements in waiting times or the numbers waiting to go home from hospital, the Omicron wave is seeing increasing numbers of staff absent.
A total of 871 days were lost at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust in the week ending December 26 because staff were sick or self-isolating due to Covid.
That was up 44% from 605 the week before, and up 87.7% from the 464 days lost a fortnight ago.
There were 497 staff absent for any reason on December 26, the equivalent of one in 13 members of staff being off.
Demand on NHS resources meant 47 ambulances had to wait more than 30 minutes to hand over patients at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust’s A&Es last week (6.2%), including five waiting more than an hour (0.7%). That’s the equivalent of one in 16 ambulances facing a wait of more than half-an-hour.
The target is for handovers to take under 15 minutes.
In the previous week, 32 ambulances waited half an hour or longer (4.3%), with 10 waiting more than an hour (1.3%). Waiting times for ambulances arriving to drop off patients have worsened compared to the figures for the same week (ending December 27) last year.
In the equivalent week last year, 12 ambulances waited more than 30 minutes (3%), with one waiting more than an hour (0.3%).
Delays to discharges in other parts of the hospital can make it more difficult to admit people from
A&E. On Sunday, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust had no beds occupied by patients who no longer needed to be in hospital, but who hadn’t been discharged.
The figures for this week compare to 196 beds occupied on the Sunday before, or 36.6% of the general and acute and adult critical care beds across the trust.
Across England, the total number of days lost due to Covid staff absence increased by 42% in the week ending December 26 compared to the week before (up from 124,855 to 176,914).
Covid-related staff absences have nearly doubled over the last two weeks, with a 96% rise.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said: “These statistics show the BMA’s repeated warnings about the impact of Omicron on the NHS workforce being realised.
“Not only are doctors incredibly worried about the rising number of people in hospital with Covid-19 – now at the highest level since early March – but also the health service’s ability to provide vital care to all patients, with more than 24,000 staff now off sick with Covid or self-isolating. That’s the equivalent of 178 staff off work at each acute trust in England.
“At the very time the NHS is standing up hundreds of extra beds in ‘Nightingale’ units to prepare for a surge in hospital admissions, the number of staff absences is rising rapidly – up 31% in a week for acute trusts in England alone - and today’s figures underline the futility of increasing bed capacity with fewer people to staff it. Furthermore, these statistics do not take into account staff at GP practices, community hospitals or other healthcare settings, so in reality the number will be much higher – and the impact on patients much further-reaching. With a record backlog in care, we cannot afford to be losing such a high number of staff.”
He said the Government needed to prioritise NHS staff for the tests they need to show a negative result so they can continue to work, and it needed to provide them with higher grade PPE. He added that public health measures to stop the community spread of Omicron were urgently needed.
On Sunday, there were almost 1,300 fewer patients remaining in hospital who no longer met the criteria to reside compared to the same day the previous week (9,288 on December 26 down from 10,576 on December 19).
Bed occupancy has decreased with 87% of adult general and acute beds occupied, down from 93% the previous week.
NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said: “We don’t yet know the full scale of rising Omicron cases and how this will affect people needing NHS treatment, but having hit a ten month high for the number of patients in hospital with Covid while wrestling with sharply increasing staff absences, we are doing everything possible to free up beds and get people home to their loved ones.
“The NHS is on a war footing, and while staff remain braced for the worst, keeping as many colleagues as possible at work on the frontline and minimising absence, will be essential in the next few weeks.”
At the very time the NHS is standing up hundreds of extra beds in ‘Nightingale’ units, the number of staff absences is rising rapidly.