Nearly a third of Harrogate Hospital staff absences over Christmas were Covid related
It's as hospitals across the country are suffering with staff shortages due to Covid illness or isolation
At Harrogate District Hospital, nearly a third of staff that were off sick over Christmas were linked to covid according to figures from NHS England.
From Christmas Eve to Boxing Day 2021, on average 31% of staff who were already absent had either tested positive for Covid-19 or had been in contact with someone who has had the virus.
On Christmas Eve 62 staff members were absent from work due to Covid, 59 on Christmas Day and 57 on Boxing Day.
191 staff were off sick in total on Christmas Eve, 188 on Christmas Day and 187 on Boxing Day.
It's as several hospitals across the country have declared major incidents as more staff are absent from work with Covid or other winter illnesses.
Speaking to Greatest Hits and Hits Radio in the days leading up to Christmas, Steve Russell, chief executive at Harrogate District Hospital, said:
"Sickness is about 5%, so it's a little bit higher than it usually is during the winter months. What we're starting to see in terms of covid absence is that rise in staff members off work because they've got covid or they have come into contact with someone who has covid.
"Though that's much lower than our peak, but we're seeing a successive and ongoing rise in the number of people who are off work so we're doing lots of work to plan what might happen if absences continue to rise.
"NHS colleagues are just like everyone else; they're not immune to getting covid or being in contact with someone who has had covid. Particularly with omicron being so very infectious and transmissible, we're having to work through how we would manage services in the event of absences going out.
"The way we get through this is with the vaccine. That's what will protect people as individuals, it's what will help stop people passing it onto other people. It's what will keep people in the NHS and care sector in work and able to look after people."
285 new people had a confirmed positive test result reported on 4 January 2022.
Between 29 December 2021 and 4 January 2022, 2,513 people had a confirmed positive test result. This shows an increase of 49.0% compared to the previous 7 days.