Staffordshire hospitals declare Covid 'critical incident'

UHNM runs County Hospital in Stafford and Royal Stoke University Hospital

Hospitals in Staffordshire have declared a "critical incident" because of coronavirus pressures.

The trust running Royal Stoke and County hospitals said it was experiencing both staff absences and "extremely high demand for all services".

The move means some non-urgent operations and outpatient appointments will be postponed.

The trust said staff were being redeployed to the most stretched areas.

Tracy Bullock, chief executive at The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, said the status change allowed it "to be able to take additional steps to maintain safe services for our patients".

She added: "We are also using tried and tested business continuity processes to deploy staff to priority areas with high levels of absence and thank all colleagues for their flexibility and commitment."

She asked people to only attend A&E for "serious" matters.

On Thursday, a county-wide major incident was declared by the Staffordshire Resilience Forum, a group which represents the NHS, local authorities and the emergency services.

Figures for the last week of December show Covid-related staff absences at hospitals in the West Midlands and across England have risen sharply since the surge of the Omicron variant.