Almost 300 staff members from NHS Fife are off due to Covid-related issues, causing “significant strain” on services.
Around 270 employees are off either with the virus or due to self-isolation rules, senior health chiefs said on Wednesday.
It comes amid a rise in patients both with and without the virus requiring care in hospitals across the Kingdom.
Services have been struggling due to the more infectious Omicron variant of coronavirus, NHS Fife medical director Dr Christopher McKenna said.
He said “as predicted” more admissions are among unvaccinated people.
Emergency and cancer care
NHS Fife announced last month it would have to stop non-urgent services in order to protect emergency and cancer care.
There has been a sharp rise in the number of people requiring hospital treatment for Covid-19, particularly amongst those who are not fully vaccinated.
Dr McKenna said: “Our hospitals are currently extremely busy.
“Not only are our wards very busy, our A&E is very busy, as are the admission areas and our community hospitals.”
He added: “Patients are coming into hospital who extremely unwell with Covid, and many of these patients haven’t been fully vaccinated.
“Some of these patients are young adults, and some of these patients are also pregnant.
“A considerable number of people admitted to hospital in recent weeks for non-covid related conditions are also being found to be positive for the virus during the initial screening process.
“As always, our staff are going above and beyond to provide patients with the best care possible but that is far from easy, with significant pressures on all areas.”
‘Get fully vaccinated’
Dr McKenna issued a plea to the people of Fife to help reduce strain on services, saying: “We need people in Fife to do all they can to help keep each other safe – that means getting fully vaccinated if you haven’t already.
“You can help us by using healthcare services responsibly, particularly our emergency department and our GP practices, who are also incredibly busy, and make use of the full range of services available, including your local high street pharmacy.”
“January will undoubtedly be an incredibly challenging month for healthcare services in Fife but we will persevere, and with the help of the people of Fife we will get through it.”
Isolation changes
Changes to isolation periods have been announced in bid to reduce strain on essential services caused by staff absences.
On Wednesday First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the self-isolation period will be cut from 10 days to seven – if people have two negative lateral flow tests.
On Tuesday NHS Fife announced new visiting restrictions at community hospitals due to coronavirus outbreaks in wards.
Only essential visiting is permitted, although there are a small number of exemptions to this, including learning disability and mental health units and where patients are receiving end-of-life care.
Visiting arrangements at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy are unchanged.
‘Visiting extremely important’
NHS Fife director of nursing, Janette Owens, said: “We know that visiting is extremely important for the wellbeing of those in our care and their loved ones.
“Throughout the pandemic we have tried to make hospital visiting as flexible as possible, while balancing this against the added risk of Covid-19 being brought into our hospitals.
“There is clear evidence that the new Omicron variant is even more transmissible than previous versions of the virus, and despite the stringent cleaning regimes in place, we have still seen a sharp increase in the number of cases of the virus being brought into our community hospitals.
‘Vulnerable patients at risk’
“Not only does this potentially put vulnerable patients at risk along with the staff caring for them, it also leads to individual bays and indeed whole wards having to be closed at a time when beds are at a premium like never before.
“While transmission of the virus is particularly high, it has been necessary that we temporarily restrict visiting in our community hospitals to essential visits only. This position will remain under continual review and restrictions will be eased as soon as it is safe to do so.”
For more information on hospital visiting in Fife, visit the NHS Fife visiting information page on its website.
