'War footing' Omicron pressure on public services rising

Full story online here.

PUBLIC services are facing increasing pressure as the rampant Omicron variant continues to spread across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

Staff shortages across the public sector are impacting hospitals, bus services and police numbers.

The latest available figures from NHS England shows 597 staff at University Hospitals Dorset (UHD) in Bournemouth and Poole were off sick on December 26 - the latest date for which data is available. 'A war footing' Of them, 191 (32 per cent) were off because they had Covid-19, or were self-isolating due to the virus.

This was a 25 per cent increase on a week before, when 153 Covid-related absences were recorded.

NHS England's medical director, Stephen Powis, said health services are on "a war footing", with Covid-related staff absences more than doubling in a fortnight.

A UHD spokesperson said: “Our hospitals routinely plan for scenarios in which our limited resources and staffing are very challenged, and this planning continues.”Other services across the conurbation have also felt the pinch as staff self-isolate with Covid-19.

The police service across the region is also experience staff shortages with contingency plans currently in place.

Jo Mosley, director of people and support services at Dorset Police, said: “As with many other organisations we are experiencing absence due to Covid, however, we have robust contingency plans in place and we are not currently experiencing any issues in delivering our service to the communities of Dorset.

“We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”