NHS Confederation is calling for urgent steps to avoid staffing crisis in the NHS in light of Omicron variant and its impact on staff absences.
The organisation, which represents the whole healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is calling for a range of measures to be taken in the NHS in England to support hospitals, ambulance services, mental health and community providers, primary care and social care providers.
Amongst the proposed measures is the prioritisation of access to lateral flow and PCR tests for key workers, including NHS and social care staff, as well as deploying medical students onto wards and other healthcare settings.
Other measures see NHS Confederation calling for explicit acknowledgment of interim changes in ways of working which mean that staffing numbers are altered or reduced and that clinical tasks might need to be allocated in ways which would not normally be recognised as best practice. Additionally, the organisation says that guidance is needed that enables patients to be transferred to a suitable placement from where they can then choose a provider of their choice.
The NHS is experiencing major staff shortages due to coronavirus infection and other illnesses. Before the pandemic, staff absence during winter was usually around the five per cent mark; now it is around eight per cent and rising. Several NHS trusts have called a ‘critical incident’ due to them not having the staff to run services as effectively as normal. In primary care, staff absence can be as much as 20-30 per cent. While in social care, providers in some regions have seen a 10 per cent reduction in their workforce in the last four weeks as staff have left for alternative employment in a recovering economy.
From 3 February the NHS is poised to start removing from frontline care around five per cent of its workforce who have not yet been double vaccinated. This will increase the demands placed on staff and teams.
Matthew Taylor chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “It’s clear that we are facing a staffing crisis in the NHS, with a number of hospitals telling us they have around 10 per cent of their staff in self-isolation or on sick leave for other reasons. This is pushing up the ratio of staff to patients to levels hospitals are extremely concerned about. And we know that several hospitals have had to declare a critical incident because of these widespread staff shortages and rising admissions. The Prime Minister’s attempts to reassure the public that the NHS is not being overwhelmed will not chime with the experience of staff working in some parts of the NHS.
“The government now needs to do all it can to mobilise more staff and other resources for the NHS to get through this extremely challenging period. We are calling for NHS, social care and other key workers to have priority access to testing – the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday that 100,000 critical workers will get direct access to daily lateral flow tests from 10 January is welcome but does not go far enough. We should not be in this position two years into the pandemic.
“We also think there is merit in continuing to review the self-isolation period to see if the evidence supports a halving of the period to five days. We also need other short-term measures, including deploying medical students on wards and taking other steps to cover rota gaps.
“It seems that the Omicron variant is milder than previous strains, but it is still too early to know how much milder, especially in terms of how it will affect older people. What we do know is that the combined impact of the sheer volume of Covid cases, rising hospital admissions and widespread staff absence is placing front-line services under enormous strain.
“We urge the government not to allow its optimism to lead to complacency given the rapidly changing situation we are seeing on a daily basis. It is for the government to review the data to see if further restrictions are needed and we urge Ministers to take the right decisions in light of the emerging evidence.”
