Covid: James Paget Hospital staff untaken leave tops £3m

The hospital said its staff were being encouraged to take some "real downtime"

The cost of staff holidays that went untaken while a hospital worked "tirelessly" during the pandemic totalled more than £3m, its finance director has estimated.

James Paget University Hospitals NHS Trust in Gorleston, Norfolk, had a "significant backlog" of annual leave.

Ed Taylor told its annual general meeting that government funding was required to cover costs from 2020-21.

Trust chief executive Anna Hills said it was encouraging staff to take leave.

Mr Taylor said: "As you can imagine, there was a significant backlog of annual leave, as the staff worked tirelessly and were unable to take their usual holiday, and the cost of that is reflected in the accounts."

Funding of £2.2m from the government covered the cost of staff not taking leave, which did not include leave that was not taken due to the trust's policies and guidelines, he added.

He estimated, therefore, that the total value of unpaid annual leave would have been in excess of £3m, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

An additional £900,000 in government funding was provided to cover overtime payments and other leave pay.

Asked if staff were taking a well-earned break, Ms Hill said: "We have been encouraging our staff to take their annual leave over the summer and to work with their colleagues so that everybody has the opportunity to take some time off and to have some real downtime.

"Obviously [we have been] making sure that we can still maintain our services safely while staff do have some time off."

James Paget said 60% of its follow-up outpatient appointments had been carired out virtually

The meeting also heard the hospital would continue to offer virtual appointments after they were "well received by the majority of patients".

It rolled out the service amid Covid restrictions.

Anna Davidson, chairman of the board of directors, said it cut out travel time.

"We will be continuing to offer this service wherever it makes sense to do so," she added.

The meeting heard about 30% of new and 60% of follow-up outpatient appointments had been carried out virtually.