NHS staff in North Yorkshire could be asked to cancel leave to cope with demand
Winter pressures and covid infections are taking their toll on staff
NHS staff in North Yorkshire could be asked to cancel annual leave if demand in our hospitals continues to increase.
It's as winter pressures, the rise in hospital patients and more staff being off sick with covid or other illnesses is taking its toll.
People in the county are being urged to be patient with staff if they need NHS treatment and to not take the service for granted.
Amanda Bloor, accountability officer at North Yorkshire Clinical Commissioning Group, said:
"The NHS is already experiencing high demand from patients across the board so we're asking people to be patient and respectful of all the staff across the NHS and our care services.
"All staff are working under significant pressures at the moment and we are expecting that a number of staff leave will be cancelled to support the continued effort so please be respectful and kind to them.
"The spread of omicron is likely to lead to significant staff absences in the NHS across the coming weeks and this will mean that we'll have further pressures on a system that is already stretched as we come into winter and this is traditionally the busiest time for the NHS".
Several cases of the omicron variant have been discovered in North Yorkshire but health bosses have warned we won't know the full picture and shouldn't make any assumptions.
They warned that they're struggling to predict how many cases could form over the next few weeks but that it could have "significant impact" on our hospitals.
Richard Webb, corporate director of health and adult services at North Yorkshire County Council, said:
"This is different. Events are changing very rapidly as we've seen nationally. It is serious and it could be very disruptive to life as we all try and live with covid, but we just don't know the full extent of that yet.
"Even in North Yorkshire, despite numbers being lower at present, we are seeing a daily doubling of new variant cases. If we follow previous patterns then we may be two to three weeks behind the trends to what we're currently seeing in London.
"It's too early to make accurate projections and we don't yet fully understand how severe the new variant is. Even the most optimistic government modelling is projecting many more cases in January and February. We could see many more hospital admissions and sadly more deaths."