Covid: Military help could be sought in Northamptonshire

Staff, including at West Northamptonshire Council's One Angel Square head office, will be moved around to prioritise dealing with Covid-19

Military help could be sought to deal with a major Covid-19 incident, according to council boss.

Northamptonshire declared a major incident on Friday, with critical services facing staff shortages.

West Northamptonshire Council's chief executive Anna Earnshaw said the decision would help keep residents and patients safe.

She said seeking military support was among the options to be discussed at a meeting on Tuesday.

"When you declare a major incident it potentially opens up the opportunity for military support from the government or regional support," said Ms Earnshaw.

Northampton Hospital had 50 patients with Covid on 27 December, but that number had increased to 91 by 4 January

On Friday it was announced that the Armed Forces had sent 200 personnel into NHS hospitals in London to plug staff shortages.

"We are talking to some of the government departments tomorrow about what we might get in terms of help. I have to say the military planners who were involved in the first wave of Covid were absolutely brilliant - second to none," said Ms Earnshaw.

"Sometimes it's that, sometimes it's more practical stuff, as in London, in terms of medical support or, indeed, logistics support."

Other plans included moving qualified nurses from backroom roles at the county's clinical commissioning group into community roles, and redeploying council staff into back office functions to allow qualified care staff to move back into frontline positions, she said.

Public Health Northamptonshire figures show there were 1,406.3 Covid cases per 100,000 people in the week to 2 January.

The infection rate remains below the England average of 1,588.1 cases per 100,000 people, but hospitals, police and fire services and councils in the county said 10% of their staff were currently off work.

Previously, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service's chief fire officer Darren Dovey said the major incident could see fire and police officers drafted in to drive ambulances.

Ms Earnshaw said: "It's a movement of staff generally around the piece to make sure we keep residents and patients safe.

The Omicron variant has resulted in increased pressure on frontline services in Northamptonshire

"We have opened up more beds, but equally we have to help our own staff to make sure we can support home care agencies and care homes."

She said some staff were "very, very tired", and calling a major incident meant staff could be redeployed to backfill roles and make sure people could take breaks.

Regional organiser for the union Unison in Northamptonshire, Cathy Symes, said health staff in the county were "exhausted".

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She said the health service was "in crisis" even before the pandemic and accused the government of failing to deal with the problem by investing in its staff.

"A decent pay rise would not only recruit new staff, but keep existing staff who are feeling completely exhausted and overwhelmed," she said.

The Department of Health said NHS staff "are continuing to go above and beyond to ensure people get the treatment they need".

The government said it had provided an extra £5.4bn to the NHS to respond to Covid over the next six months.