Covid: South Yorkshire hospitals facing 'very high staff absence levels'

Hospitals in South Yorkshire are experiencing ‘very high staff absence levels’ as a result of Covid, with operating theatres closing and staff being asked to consider relinquishing annual leave.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

In Rotherham, 559 staff are currently off sick, 310 of which have Covid or are isolating.

A report by Dr Richard Jenkins, interim chief executive at the Rotherham NHS Foundation to the board of directors said staff sickness is ‘being managed on a shift by shift basis daily’, and that testing for staff has been ‘ramped up accordingly’.

Read More
Omicron: Rotherham Hospital suspends visiting due to spread of new Covid variant
In Rotherham, 559 staff are currently off sick, 310 of which have Covid or are isolating.In Rotherham, 559 staff are currently off sick, 310 of which have Covid or are isolating.
In Rotherham, 559 staff are currently off sick, 310 of which have Covid or are isolating.
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Dr Jenkins told the board of directors meeting on January 7 that hospitals across South Yorkshire are facing ‘very high staff absence levels’ in the 10 to 15 per cent range.

“The local resilience forum has declared a critical incident for our patch. That was declared on the Christmas Eve and that’s still live,” added Dr Jenkins.

“On the back of that the local trusts have not been declaring critical incidents, because we view it as the whole system is in a critical incident mode of working.

“Staff are quite stressed and we do not have the numbers of staff on duty that we would normally wish to have.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Staff have been asked to consider relinquishing any booked annual leave to ‘support the operational pressures’, and have been given the option to roll their leave over to the next financial year.

George Briggs, chief operating officer, added that the number of staff off sick meant that some non-essential areas had to be closed, and staff have been moved from non-clinical based areas to support clinical areas.

“We’ve also closed some theatres… and some ward areas,” he added.

Despite the staffing challenges, a minimum of two nurses on all wards has been maintained, and 30 additional nurses have been recruited.

Mandatory staff vaccinations

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In hospitals across the country, concerns have been raised about new rules requiring front line staff to be fully vaccinated in order to continue working with patients, which may further exacerbate staffing issues.

Of the 5,000 staff employed by the trust in Rotherham, 92 per cent have been doubly vaccinated, and Mr Ned told the meeting that of the approximately 400 staff whose vaccination status is unknown, efforts are being made to ascertain if they have been vaccinated.

Mr Ned said: “We think that majority of those will say, I was vaccinated elsewhere.

“There are also some staff within that cohort that won’t be frontline healthcare staff. And equally, there will be some within that cohort who will have medical exemptions.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We’re trying to get to a definitive position of staff who are actively choosing not to be vaccinated who occupy a frontline health care role.

“As part of that process, then we will be having conversations led by clinical colleagues.”