Figures reveal huge Covid related staff absences at Bristol hospitals
NHS bosses tell us staff absences have almost doubled in the past fortnight
Bristol's two NHS Trusts have told us they are on "a war footing", as data shows hundreds of staff have been off work with Covid related illnesses over the last two weeks.
Figures we have seen show across Bristol and Weston Super Mare 317 staff members were absent with Covid related issues on Boxing Day, which works out as just over a third of all absences on the day.
There were 181 Covid related absences at the University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW), which covers sites including the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Weston General, plus 136 at the North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT), which covers Southmead.
That compares to a total absence number of 905 across both Trusts.
In a joint statement sent to us by UHBW and NBT, both Trust's quoted NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis.
"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 – and in the last week hundreds more beds were freed up each day compared to the week before," he is quoted as saying.
“On top of the incredible efforts made by staff to get people out of hospital safely, we are also making every possible preparation for the uncertain challenges of omicron, including setting up new Nightingale surge hubs at hospitals across the country and recruiting thousands of nurses and reservists.
“The NHS is on a war footing, and while staff remain braced for the worst, with covid absence for NHS staff almost doubling in the past fortnight, keeping as many colleagues as possible at work on the frontline and minimising absence, will be essential in the next few weeks," the statement contniues.
"As staff throw everything at preparing for this next wave, the public can play their part in protecting themselves by getting the first, second and booster jabs, as tens of millions of others already have.”
Shortly before Christmas the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which overseas NHS activity in the area, declared it was commandeering part of a Bristol hotel in an attempt to take more pressure off our hospitals.
A Temporary Care Facility has opened at The Bristol Hotel for patients who are fit enough to leave hospital, but cannot for whatever reason, go home.
"Live-in staff will provide 24/7 support for 30 individuals at any one time," a statement sent to us by the CCG reads.
"Everyone will have their own en-suite room facilities and access to communal areas where appropriate."
Back in November figures from NHS England revealed wait times for serious incidents are nearly three times as long as they should be and in response the South West Ambulance Service blamed "systemic problems" but singled out one of them as problems freeing up beds by discharging patients.
On December 2, Robert Woolley, who is chief executive of UHBW apologised for delays and appealed for the public to play its part by accessing care wisely.