The number of NHS staff off sick because of Covid is rising sharply, figures show, prompting fresh fears about how hospitals will be able to respond to any Omicron-driven surge in patients needing care.
One health service leader said the NHS was now facing “a double emergency” of growing numbers of people hospitalised with Covid alongside increasing sickness absence on the frontline.
The number of staff days lost to Covid across the NHS in England hit 124,855 last week, a 38% jump from the 90,277 of the week before, according to the latest “winter sitreps” data published by NHS England.
The total number of staff absences for any medical reason – such as a cold, flu or mental health problem – also increased, though less steeply, from 416,995 to 457,135, a rise of 10%.
Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “These figures show how Omicron is having a tangible real-time impact on a service that was already operating beyond full stretch. This is a big worry for trust leaders. Absences due to Covid-19 are up nearly 40% and with community infections surging ahead, that figure may well get worse before it gets better.”
Prof Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said the health service was “on a war footing”. The surge in staff sickness absence was “worrying, high and rising”, he said.
Covid staff sickness rose by 122% in a week at hospital trusts in London, which has had more Omicron cases than anywhere else in England. Across the capital, 3,874 NHS staff were off for that reason on Sunday 19 December – more than double the 1,540 seen a week earlier.
Across England as a whole, the number of health workers off because of Covid rose by 54% in a week, from 12,240 to 18,820.
In London, 515 staff were off for that reason at Guy’s and St Thomas’s trust, more than double the 193 a week earlier. The trust plans to scale back non-essential services and redeploy staff to help in A&E.
At King’s College hospital foundation trust, numbers jumped from 193 to 505.
The British Medical Association has estimated that anywhere between 32,000 and 130,000 NHS staff across England could be off sick with Covid by Christmas Day.
“The latest data from the frontline of the NHS show that the spread of Omicron is causing a double emergency for NHS capacity, as both hospitalisations climb and as rapidly rising numbers of Covid-positive staff have to self-isolate,” said Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation.
Other NHS England figures showed that London hospitals are now treating about 1,200 people who have Covid.
Separate data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that about one in 45 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to 16 December, up from one in 60 the previous week.
One in 45 is the equivalent of about 1.2 million people, the highest number since the ONS began estimating infection levels for England in May 2020.
In London, about one in 30 people were likely to test positive in the week – the highest proportion for any region – while Yorkshire and the Humber had the lowest proportion, at about one in 65.
