NHS Wales boss: Staff are tired and have been affected personally by covid crisis
Dr Andrew Goodall, the chief executive of NHS Wales, has described in detail the mental and physical toll the coronavirus pandemic is having on NHS staff.
He said staff were "very tired" at the moment.
Speaking during Tuesday's Welsh Government briefing, Dr Goodall said there were currently 1,275 Covid-related patients in Welsh hospitals – a figure 18% higher than last week and the highest number since late April.
Discussing the toll the pandemic had on NHS staff, Dr Goodall said: "They are very tired at the moment.
"They have been affected by this personally as well as professionally, as all of us have been, and I just think we need to recognise the extraordinary efforts they are taking to make sure we have services available in Wales and that we are trying to ensure we are increasing that range of services as well.
"We have got support in place for our staff so they can access that and we have been enhancing that as we learn more about how traumatic the experience can be for some of our areas."
He also stressed that routine and priority treatment for non-Covid patients had restarted with more than twice the number of non-coronavirus patients also in hospital beds.
Since the first wave of the pandemic earlier this year, he said, planned inpatient and day case admissions had risen and in September 2020 they were more than 160% up compared to April.
Dr Goodall said: "When I said we have twice as many non-coronavirus cases in our beds as back in April it just shows you how much busier the NHS in Wales is than at that time which obviously effects the capacity and the workforce that we have available.
"Whilst we do have plans for expanding activity and expanding capacity, like into the field hospitals, ultimately even with some increases in our staff it is still the same workforce that responds to these pressures as we see these things potentially continue to increase.
"There well may be local decisions that are needing to be taken at the moment by local health boards to balance between planned activity and emergencies because they have to prioritise what's coming in through the front door."
Dr Goodall added that current sickness and absence rates were lower than at this point last year but admitted the NHS was seeing an increase in staff numbers either suffering from coronavirus or having to self-isolate due to test and trace procedures.
Asked what his message is for those whose care has been postponed, or those struggling to book appointments, Dr Goodall apologised and said: "I hope they will understand the extraordinary circumstances in which we continue to respond.
He added: "Whilst we can't say when we will be through this pandemic we will have to develop a plan, and I'm afraid it will be a long-term plan for how we are able to deal with patients on our waiting list, we will need to be sure we are able to invest in extra capacity and support to ensure the NHS is able to get those patients supported appropriately and in the right kind of setting.
"But we still are in the middle of a pandemic and despite all of our good intentions we still don't know when, I'm afraid, coronavirus will be ended at this stage."
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