Health boss urges parents to keep kids off school if they're unwell

Parents across Staffordshire are being advised not to send their kids to school if they're showing signs of being sick.

It's to try and prevent rising levels of COVID-19, flu and scarlet fever from adding any further pressure to the areas hospitals.

Dr Steve Fawcett is the Clinical Director of Urgent Care across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire:

"In an acute illness I think it's right that children should be kept off. You shouldn't be sending children your in requiring Calpol to control their temperature in school.

"I've always felt if children have a fever, they're unwell, and they shouldn't be being sent into school. They're likely to spread their illness further.

"The problem is it's difficult to predict at what point they become non-infectious. If we take COVID as an example, you can probably say after five days from onset they're probably safe to go back."

The Royal Stoke and County Hospital Stafford are both under a declared critical incident status due to extreme demand on its services.

"We've got almost as many flu patients as we have COVID patients." said Dr Matthew Lewis, Medical Director at UHNM.

“We have been under severe and sustained pressure over the Christmas period and until we have the opportunity to treat and discharge some of the patients in our bed base, and until we see a reduction in COVID and flu numbers it's difficult to see how we're going to come out of this quickly. It's going to be several weeks at least until we are in a position that we are more comfortable."

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