Salisbury Hospital bans visitors as Omicron increases pressure on health services

Hospitals across the south are facing increasing pressure as more staff are forced to self-isolate or are off sick because of Covid.

Salisbury District Hospital has told ITV Meridian it currently has 250 staff off sick, half of them suffering with Covid. The majority of workers are doctors and nurses, which is putting a strain on services.

From January 1, the hospital is restricting general visiting as Covid rates have increased significantly over the past two weeks.

The hospital says families can agree visiting with the ward sister in exceptional circumstances to ensure some people can visit their loved ones.

Message to family and friends unable to visit their loved ones from Chief Executive Stacey Hunter.

Chief Executive of the hospital, Stacey Hunter said, "At the moment we only have a small number of people in hospital with Covid, but our community rates are really high, so we want to take every precaution possible.

"We know the Omicron variant is five times more likely to re-infect than the variant we were dealing with last January, so that has played a part in our decision making.

Salisbury is not the only hospital across the region experiencing pressure from Covid.

In Swindon, the Great Western Hospital has declared a critical incident' as they face increasing pressure from Omicron.

The critical incident means it will receive support with discharging patients home as quickly as possible to free up bed capacity for those who need it.

In a statement, the trust said: 'We currently have 67 patients being treated for Covid-19, of which five are in ICU (intensive care unit).

At the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, staff say they are experiencing a rise in the number of Covid patients.

Health officials have described the next few weeks as critical, as the impact of Christmas and New Year is felt.

Clinical Matron of the Emergency Department at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital Alison Corker has worked at the hospital for eleven years.

She told ITV News Meridian, "The Trust has prepared very well.

"We have prepared our staff, and we have plans in place in case we see this wave that may be coming.

"We do have staff that are either off with Covid or isolating, but all of our services are open and we are encouraging anyone to come to hospital that needs to, and we have plans in place in case we need to make any rapid changes.

"We are seeing an increase in other winter presentations, there is norovirus in the community which causes diarrhea and vomiting.

"Winter is difficult anyway, so we have to take everything into consideration, but we are prepared as a hospital.

In December, the hospital set up its own vaccine centre offering people Covid jabs, to encourage people to get their boosters.

"We always encourage everyone to get their vaccines as it's important for people to protect themselves and their families, but we don't judge anyone that comes in and we treat everyone that comes in the door.

Chief Nurse, Julie Dawes said "We've certainly seen an increase in the number of staff away either with Covid, or with Covid contact.

"It is starting to have some impact but we have plans to deal with that.

"On Christmas Eve we had 28 patients across the two hospitals and we are now up to about 50, so we are seeing an increase.

She added, "The next few weeks will be critical as we see the impact of Christmas and New Year.

She added, "It's been a really tough couple of years. We started off talking about it being a marathon and not a sprint.

"It's definitely starting to feel like a marathon now, but having said that, our staff are absolutely fantastic and we feel as prepared as we possibly can be."