NHS staff ‘in despair’ amid mass staff shortages over Christmas

‘Very, very depleted workforce’ facing worse Christmas than 2020, says Royal College of Nursing chief

Nurses are said to be in “despair” and routinely working 14-hour days as they grapple with mass staff shortages caused by the Omicron wave of coronavirus (Victoria Jones/PA)

Nurses have been driven to “despair” as they routinely work 14-hour days amid mass shortages caused by the Omicron wave of coronavirus.

Pat Cullen, head of the Royal College of Nursing, said a “very, very depleted workforce” was facing a worse Christmas than last year due to the number of staff forced into isolation.

The government may have left it “too late” to protect the NHS unless it heeds advice from scientific experts who have called for a circuit breaker, she told BBC Breakfast on Friday.

Ms Cullen said ministers would find it easier to make decisions on how to defend the health service if they “walk in the shoes of any nurse” for a day.

She revealed healthcare staff are often working 14-hour shifts to make up for the shortages.

“We need to listen to the wonderful scientific experts that we have throughout the country,” Ms Cullen said.

“We listened to them yesterday evening and many evenings on TV and what (they are) saying that something needs to happen in terms of perhaps a circuit breaker, and that if we leave it much longer unfortunately our nurses fear it will be a little bit too late for the health service.”

Some 3,874 NHS staff at acute hospital trusts in London were absent for Covid reasons on 19 December, more than double the number a week earlier (1,540) and more than three times the number at the start of the month (1,174), according to new figures from NHS England.

The total includes staff who were ill with Covid-19 or who were having to self-isolate.

Across England as a whole, 18,829 NHS staff at acute trusts were absent due to Covid-19 reasons on 19 December, up 54 per cent from 12,240 a week earlier and up 51 per cent from 12,508 at the start of the month.

Ms Cullen said those figures were only likely to increase over the festive period.

“The despair that nurses are facing and the fear and the sheer struggle they’re facing every day will continue over the Christmas period, because this Christmas, of course, will not be normal. It will be similar to last year, if not worse, is what they’re telling us,” she added.

Her concerns about the service becoming overwhelmed were echoed by Chris Hopson, head of NHS Providers, who said the NHS is under “huge amounts of pressure”.

“We’ve got growing staff absences because as soon as Omicron starts circulating in the community, surprise, surprise, you’ll find that NHS staff get the infection and therefore have to take time off,” he told Sky News.

Sajid Javid has also warned hospitals face being “overwhelmed” as NHS staff sickness from Covid rises.

The health secretary said officials were monitoring data “hour by hour” after new figures showed the Covid infection rates in the UK reaching record levels with an estimated 1.4 million people with the virus.

NHS leaders fear the “exhausted” service will struggle to deliver care over winter and have warned they are in a “state of emergency.”

There were 2,097 people in hospital in London with Covid-19 as of 8am on 23 December, according to new figures from NHS England, the highest number since 27 February.

During the second Covid wave, the number peaked at 7,917 on 18 January.

Across England, 7,114 patients were in hospital with Covid-19 on 23 December, the highest number since 4 November and up 11 per cent week on week.

Additional reporting by Press Association