Barts NHS Trust warns ‘some or much’ of its January operations will be cancelled as Omicron surges
Barts Health NHS Trust has written to doctors this morning warning that it may have to cancel “some or much” of its planned operations in January because of rising Omicron rates.
The trust is one of the largest in England and runs five hospitals in the City of London .
Its warning comes after Chris Hopson, chief executive officer of NHS Providers told the BBC yesterday that London was seeing a “very significant increase” in staff absences at hospital.
He said staff absences jumped from 1,900 at the beginning of last week to 4,700 by Thursday last week – and this has gone up further since, the BBC understands.
NHS England said that 1,025,985 staff have had their booster as of Saturday, representing 80 per cent of those who are currently eligible.
The NHS are becoming increasingly concerned with absentee rates, after they increased 140 per cent in a week.