Norfolk hospital chief says more staff off than ever before

The chief executive of the James Paget University Hospital in Norfolk has said that the hospital has unprecedented staff sickness levels due to Covid-19 and was ‘completely full’ on Tuesday.

 

Currently, 11 per cent of the hospital’s staff are absent, compared to its normal rate of around 4 per cent.

 

Anna Hills, chief executive of the hospital, said it was “one of the most challenging times” for the trust.

 

Ms Hills told a meeting of the hospital’s council of governors “We’ve had to extend our Covid patients into other wards – so we have one infection control ward.  We’ve had to extend into a second ward and then this week we’ve had to extend into a third ward.

 

“On top of that, we’ve got staff sickness levels the likes of which we’ve never seen before.”

 

Ms Hills said that the current situation was “one of the most challenging times, or the most challenging time, that the trust has ever seen”.

 

However, she added that the trust was in a “really fortunate position” with a “zero vacancy rate”.

 

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in medical negligence claims, providing support and guidance after life-changing events.  Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

 

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

 

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