Covid: Northamptonshire declares major incident amid critical staff shortages

Northamptonshire has declared a major Covid-19 incident with hospitals, care homes and other services facing critical staff shortages.

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

The decision was made by the Local Resilience Forum (LRF), made up of front-line services across the county.

Chairman Darren Dovey said it would enable services to "share resources".

The infection rate in Northamptonshire remains below the England average of 1,588.1 cases per 100,000 people.

The decision was made at a meeting of public sector leaders on Thursday, but only announced on Friday.

The forum, which includes the police, local authorities, the fire service and the NHS, said declaring a major incident "bolsters health and public services' ability to join forces and co-ordinate activity to help continuity of essential services".

It would also "help to manage and plan for sustained pressure caused by Covid-19 on staffing levels".

It allows measures such as staff in the fire or police services filling in to drive ambulances, or ongoing prevention work being shelved so that emergencies can be dealt with.

Mr Dovey, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service's chief fire officer, said: "Declaring this incident is a necessary step to make sure we are able to share resources where necessary, which is increasingly important as more staff need to self-isolate."

He said the spread of the Omicron variant had led to an increase in staff absences across the public sector, either due to people testing positive or having to self-isolate due to a close contact.

He said 10% of police and fire staff in the county were currently off work.

"At the same time there are increasing submissions to hospitals and difficulties in discharging patients due to social care being under pressure as well," he said.

Source: UK Government

Mr Dovey said forum members "don't envisage this will last for very long".

"What we want to do is get in front of this," he added.

"What we don't want is two weeks down the line to find the situation is deteriorating and we are trying to chase the curve.

"The public should not be concerned. They should take confidence that all the public sector agencies in the county are coming together to deliver the best possible service."

Chief executive of NHS Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Toby Sanders, said urgent services and time-critical procedures would continue, while anyone whose treatment was delayed would be contacted.

"Anyone who is not yet fully vaccinated is urged to book in their jab as soon as possible to protect themselves and their families and reduce pressure on health services," he said.

General care manager at Home Instead East Northants, Sherri Brown, said she was not surprised at the major incident declaration.

The centre, which caters for elderly and younger disabled people in Rushden, Higham Ferrers, Wellingborough, Kettering and the surrounding area, currently has 18 off its 110 care-givers off work.

Eight of those have Covid-19.

"It's very challenging," she said. "We've also currently got all of our office staff - they were care-givers when they first started with us - out on care as well."

The move comes just a day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited a vaccination centre in Northampton.

During the trip, he accused anti-vaccine campaigners of speaking "mumbo jumbo" about coronavirus jabs.

The deputy leader of West Northamptonshire Council's Labour group, Emma Roberts, said: "The Prime Minister rolled into Northampton yesterday for a photo shoot and claimed there were no local staffing shortages in the NHS.

"At the same time our Clinical Commissioning Group and Local Resilience Forum were preparing to declare a major incident."

She said credit should be given to service providers in the county, but said the "crisis" was the result of "callous decisions taken at the national level by the Conservative government".

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the NHS was facing a "rocky few weeks ahead" and called on people to continue to get vaccinated to help the relieve pressure on the health service.

A government spokesperson said it is supporting NHS staff continue to "go above and beyond" to ensure people get treatment this winter.

Earlier this week several hospital trusts across the country declared critical incidents amid staff shortages and rising pressures.

On Thursday, a major incident was declared in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.

In December, London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a major incident in the capital due to the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

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