Health leaders have warned of patient care coming under threat after Boris Johnson insisted that England can “ride out” the Omicron wave of Covid-19 without new restrictions, despite admitting that NHS hospitals will feel overwhelmed as infections surge in the coming days and weeks.
As daily confirmed infections topped 200,000 for first time, the prime minister said the health service was being put on “war footing” ahead of what he acknowledged will be a very difficult period.
But he refused to tighten plan B curbs, insisting that high vaccination rates and public compliance with existing restrictions gave England a chance to “find a way to live with this virus” without shutting down social and economic life.
The Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary Pat Cullen said that nurses watched his statement at a Downing Street press conference “in disbelief”.
“One described to me today that the NHS feels more broken than she’s ever known it,” said Ms Cullen. “This is not hysteria, this is blowing the whistle on falling standards as patient care comes under real threat.
“We have called for an honest conversation with the public about how overstretched health and care services are and, tonight, the PM did not start one.”
And the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, Matthew Taylor, said: “The prime minister’s attempts to reassure the public that the NHS is not being overwhelmed does not chime with the experience of staff up and down the country who are facing fast-rising hospital admissions, intense pressures on all parts of the health and care system and widespread staff absence.”
Some 12 hospitals in England have already declared “critical incidents” – a status that enables health leaders to request assistance from nearby NHS trusts to ensure they can continue to provide essential services.
The latest NHS data show that there are 15,044 people with the disease in English hospitals – a figure that has doubled over the past two weeks. Roughly two-thirds of these patients are receiving care primarily for Covid, officials have said.
Current hospitalisation rates in England are some way off the levels reached during the 34,000 peak of the second wave.
But chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty said the numbers were nonetheless “significant”, saying: “If we went back to mid-December when we were still with the Delta wave the numbers were between 6,000 and 6,500. A very substantial increase.”
Pressures have been exacerbated by mounting staff absences due to the spread of Omicron in hospitals and the continuing high demand for urgent care services.
As staff shortages disrupted not only healthcare but also schools and transport, Mr Johnson announced plans for daily lateral flow tests for 100,000 critical workers from 10 January to keep key services up and running.
He revealed that troops could soon be sent into hospitals, with officials tasked with identifying the trusts most likely to need military assistance.
Mr Johnson has previously said that plan B restrictions imposed on 8 December – involving mandatory face coverings in public places, Covid passes for mass-audience events and work from home guidance – would be tightened if the NHS was at risk of being overwhelmed.
He today refused to define the term “overwhelmed”, but conceded: “I think that different trusts in different places at different moments will feel at least temporarily overwhelmed, and hospitals at the moment are sending out signals that they are feeling the pressure hugely.”
Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital became the latest to adopt the emergency stance on Tuesday, with just under 500 of its staff off sick or isolating due to Covid.
“Attendances in our emergency department are high; there are ongoing challenges in discharging patients who are well enough to leave hospital, and we are seeing an increase in staff sickness, all of which leads to longer waits than we would like for patients to be seen and admitted,” said Jo Beer, chief operating officer of the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.
Latest figures showed a daily total of 218,724 positive coronavirus tests recorded across the UK on Tuesday – well above the highest tallies reached during earlier waves of Covid-19.
But deaths remained low compared to previous peaks, with 48 reported on Tuesday and 909 over the past week, against a daily record of more than 1,200 in January 2021.
The PM has come under pressure to step up restrictions in line with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to rein in soaring numbers of infections.
And he acknowledged: “Anyone who thinks our battle with Covid is over is profoundly wrong. This is a moment for the utmost caution.”
But he said that he will on Wednesday recommend to cabinet no tightening of plan B restrictions to match Scotland, where nightclubs have been closed and hospitality venues limited to table service, or Wales, where strict limits have been imposed on public gatherings and two-metre social distancing reintroduced in offices and public premises.
Mr Johnson said it was important to recognise that curbs on normal life were not “cost-free” in terms of livelihoods and disruption to the education of young people.
He accepted that the NHS was under “a lot of pressure”, but said he was “confident that we can get through it”.
“We now have a substantial level of protection,” said the prime minister. “So, together with the plan B measures we introduced before Christmas, we have a chance to ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again.
“We can keep our schools and our businesses open and we can find a way to live with this virus.”
Mr Johnson said the weeks ahead will be “challenging” but added: “If we all play our part in containing the spread of this virus, the disruptions we face can be far less severe than a national lockdown, with all the devastation that would bring for livelihoods and the life chances of our children.”
Mr Johnson said: “There will be a difficult period for our wonderful NHS for the next few weeks because of Omicron. I just think that we have to get through it as best we possibly can.”
Infectious disease specialist Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia said that recent modelling had suggested that tougher control measures could actually extend the Omicron wave without having much impact on its severity.
“The balance of evidence is supportive of not increasing restrictions at the moment,” said Prof Hunter.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said Mr Johnson’s lateral flow test scheme was “hopelessly inadequate”, reaching only one in 100 of the UK’s 10.6 million key workers:
“Key workers do their vital work in teams,” said Ms O’Grady. “Surgeons and nurses need cleaners and porters. Food supply needs producers, warehouse staff, drivers, and retailers.
“Ministers must explain who is left out, and what they should do if they can’t get tested. The prime minister has known about the shortage of tests for weeks. It beggars belief that he is doing so little, so late.”
