Omicron: London hospitals in dangerous situation, consultant says

About 10% of staff at Dr Katherine Henderson's NHS trust are off sick

Hospitals in London have been plunged into a "dangerous situation" as the Omicron variant has sent staff sickness levels soaring, a doctor has warned.

Dr Katherine Henderson, a consultant at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, said almost 10% of doctors and nurses at her NHS trust were off sick with Covid.

Due to high levels of staff being off for a prolonged period of time, patient safety could be affected, she added.

"People need to understand that this is a dangerous situation," she said.

A further 88,376 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the UK on Thursday, with more than 23,000 of those in London - more than at any time reported during the pandemic.

There are currently nearly 1,400 Covid patients being treated at London hospitals - a 30% increase since the end of November. Up to 195 of those are on ventilators.

During the January peak, more than 7,900 people were in hospital.

Staff testing positive for Covid are off work for much longer than is typical for a sickness absence

"The acute problem is to do with staffing and workforce," Dr Henderson told the BBC's Today programme.

"Because there's so much [Covid] in circulation, even if we're not seeing a big rise in hospitalisations yet, we're already seeing the effect on not having the staff to run shifts properly and safely.

"So we are worried about patient harm coming about because we just don't have the staff to keep the eye on the person on the trolley who is maybe a bit agitated."

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She added that, usually, staff sickness would last a couple of days - but if staff were testing positive for Covid, they were off for 10 days.

"On one shift I had four people go off," she said. "Probably in London, this has hit hardest first as that's where Omicron is in high circulation.

"We've already got pressures on staff and people are not picking up agency shifts, so the combination is really quite worrying for maintaining our rotas."

Meanwhile, mass vaccination centres will be opening this weekend, at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground on Saturday and at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.