Pressure grows on Dorset's hospitals due to staff absences
Dorset County Hospital say they are very busy but have NOT yet declared a critical incident
Covid related staff absences are putting pressure on Dorset's hospitals.
A critical incident has been declared by University Hospitals Dorset.
The Healthcare Trust looks after hospitals in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.
A spokesperson for the Trust said:
"This critical incident is an indication of the serious pressure we are facing and demonstrates how we are taking immediate steps to ensure we can still provide our critical services. We are working extremely hard to ensure our patients are kept safe.
"This incident also reflects the concerted pressure on our urgent care pathways and the fact that any beds that do become available may not be in the most appropriate setting for our patients.
"The additional infection prevention and control requirements that apply whenever a patient is admitted with covid means that any increase in the numbers makes a very significant difference to the pressures experienced by our staff.
"We have already made the very difficult decision to cancel some elective operations and continue to monitor the situation very closely."
Dorset County Hospital has not declared a critical incident, but say they remain very busy.
A spokesperson for Dorset County Hospital told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset:
"As always, our communities can help us maintain hospital services for those who need us most by using local health services appropriately and calling 111 if they are not sure where to go."
NHS England data shows 150 staff at Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust were off sick on December 26 – the latest date for which data is available.
Of them, 47 were off because they had Covid-19, or were self-isolating due to the virus.
This was an increase of eight on the previous week, when 39 Covid-related absences were recorded.