Critical incident declared as hospitals, ambulances, GP surgeries and care homes hit by Covid

Hospitals, ambulances, GP surgeries and care homes have all been hit by staff absences which is “impacting the ability to operate services.”

The Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System (ICS) said on Tuesday there were a record number of patients in hospitals with Covid and “extremely high levels of staff sickness” across the county’s health and care services.

A statement from the ICS, which combines hospital and care services, said there were a record 126 Covid-positive patients in hospital, and a staff sickness rate of 8.4 per cent, numbers which were “causing significant pressure as we seek to care for and look after these poorly patients”.

“This is the highest number we have had locally at any point of the pandemic,” the statement said.

“We have an extremely high number of staff off from work with Covid across the health and care system. Staff sickness overall is circa 8.4 per cent. This is impacting on our ability to operate services.”

The issues mean there are “ambulance delays at our acute hospitals.”

Across the county there are also 35 care homes closed to visitors due to Covid outbreaks in Shropshire and four in Telford & Wrekin.

“Safe discharge of patients is also proving challenging, despite the continued hard work and dedicated focus of our community and local authority partners. As an example today we have 35 care homes closed due to Covid outbreaks in Shropshire and four in Telford & Wrekin.”

There are also eight local GP practices operating business continuity plans due to Covid staff sickness and both NHS111 and Shropdoc (the GP Out of Hours service) is report staffing issues.

In response they are asking staff on leave to contact work to see if they are needed.

They are asking the public to “wash hands, keep a distance and wear masks in crowded settings.”

Patients are also being asked to seek alternatives to attending Accident and Emergency departments although A&E remains open for emergencies and urgent care needs.

The statement adds: “We are doing everything we can as a health and care system to rapidly improve the position and we apologise for any negative impact this has on an individual’s experience of our local health and care system.”

The system wide critical incident follows four critical incidents being declared at Shropshire’s major hospitals.

The last one, earlier this month, led to some appointments being cancelled at the hospitals in Shrewsbury and Telford and chiefs saying that intense pressure means they had to prioritise services.

It was the third time that a critical incident was declared at Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in just over a month and the fourth time so far this year.

At the time the trust blamed “exceptionally high levels” of demand, the impact of Covid-19 and bed-blocking due to not being able to discharge medically fit patients.

Those incidents involved the acute hospitals, this latest incident is across the health and social care system.