Health and social care providers brace for Omicron staff shortages in coming weeks

The crisis point for staffing in the social care sector as a result of the Omicron variant could come in the next couple of weeks, one Yorkshire industry boss has warned.
A sign saying lateral flow coronavirus tests are out of stock is seen at a pharmacists in London.A sign saying lateral flow coronavirus tests are out of stock is seen at a pharmacists in London.
A sign saying lateral flow coronavirus tests are out of stock is seen at a pharmacists in London.

The workforces in medicine and social care are both feeling the squeeze as high numbers of staff are having to isolate after catching Covid.

High case rates and requests to test before festive gatherings have also put pressure on testing infrastructure, with people across the country reporting difficulties getting appointments and devices.

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Mike Padgham’s warning that providers need to prepare for a tough January come after NHS bosses also shared their concerns about the coming days.

Mr Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, told The Yorkshire Post: “It will be in the early part of January I think when it reaches its peak, as far as I can tell, so we’ve got to prepare ourselves.

“The challenge is, the NHS is short of staff we were already short of staff any way in social care before the pandemic, so this is going to be difficult.”

Earlier yesterday morning, Chris Hopson, the head of NHS Providers which represents trusts, said staff absences due to Covid-19 were “clearly now having a significant impact” across the whole economy and parts of the health service.

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“NHS experience suggests that the impact varies considerably depending on how many staff are isolating, driven by local community infection rates; ability to rapidly source temporary replacement staff; and ability to flex existing staff to cover work of those who are absent,” he said.

“For example, some NHS ambulance trust CEOs are saying their current staff absence rates mean significant numbers of ambulances off the road, given the need to have appropriately trained staff in each ambulance.”

Meanwhile, the Welsh government came to Westminster’s aid yesterday, loaning millions of coronavirus tests that have been hard to come by for a number of days.

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There has been a surge in demand for lateral flows ahead of New Year celebrations and amid record case numbers across the country.

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But by 9am on Thursday, home delivery slots for lateral flow tests were unavailable on the Gov.uk website.

Pharmacies have also complained about patchy supplies of lateral flow kits.

The Welsh Government has agreed to loan four million more tests to the NHS in England, bringing the total the country has given England to a total of 10 million.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “Wales has a significant stock of lateral flow tests, sufficient to meet our needs over the weeks ahead.”

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In a letter to MPs, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the supply of lateral flow devices (LFDs) was being tripled in January and February from a pre-Omicron plan of 100m to 300m per month.

“To respond to anticipated demand over the coming few weeks we are buying hundreds of millions more LFD tests, bringing new products on board and accelerating their deployment to the public,” he said.

The chairman of the Royal College of GPs Professor Martin Marshall criticised “mixed messages” over test availability and said that demand had gone up “dramatically”.

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