Operations cancelled at Nottingham hospitals as Covid cases rise

"Difficult decisions" had to be made about treatment, hospital bosses said

A "perfect storm" of high Covid cases and staff absences have led to some operations being cancelled, hospital bosses in Nottingham have said.

More than 250 patients have Covid, and more than 700 staff at Nottingham City Hospital and the Queen's Medical Centre were isolating as of 26 December.

To keep emergency beds staffed, "difficult decisions" had to be made, chief nurse Michelle Rhodes said.

She added she was "in awe" of what the staff were doing during the pandemic.

A record 3.7m people in the UK had Covid in the week to New Year's Eve - an extra million more than the week before - according to estimates from the Office for National Statistics.

Chief nurse Michelle Rhodes said the primary concern was to maintain a safe environment

Ms Rhodes said: "Things are really tight, things are tough all over the country and we are particularly feeling the pressure now.

"It's the perfect storm. We are getting more patients coming in with Covid and there are more staff going off because of Covid or having to isolate.

"The breakdown of the staff who are off at the minute, just over half of them are off because of Covid and that is 6% of the nursing and midwifery workforce, so it does have an impact on us."

Routine patient visits have been suspended for two weeks.

Ms Rhodes said: "We have had to take some difficult decisions about cancelling some operations which is awful for everybody, especially those who have been waiting a long time because we are concerned they are going to have to wait even longer.

"What we have to do is make sure anybody who comes in for elective procedure comes in to a safe environment and at the moment we just don't have enough staff to manage all of our emergencies and all the elective on top of that.

"We are trying to keep as much of the cancer and urgent elective work going as we possibly can and senior doctors and nurses are making these decisions on a daily basis."

Ms Rhodes added that staff were tired but everyone was supporting each other as much as possible.

"It is a really difficult time for them but they are doing a great job," she said.

"I'm in awe of them every day for what they do."

On Tuesday, Boris Johnson said the plan was to "ride out" the Omicron wave with no further curbs but acknowledged parts of the NHS would feel "temporarily overwhelmed" with the surge in cases with "some services disrupted by staff absences"