Britain’s health system has been hit by an unprecedented crisis as nearly 50,000 health workers have been sickened by a coronavirus infection
As reported by News Front earlier, the British authorities promised to vaccinate 15 million citizens by mid-February. However, as it turned out, there was no one to provide vaccination on this scale.
The head of the British Medical Association, Chaand Nagpole, said in a statement to members that 46,000 hospital staff had been sickened by the coronavirus.
“This puts additional strain on an already overburdened system that is struggling to cope even with current emergency care needs”, – he said. – “Only if NHS staff remain in good shape will we be able to meet the unprecedented increase in demand in the coming weeks and months, and implement the vaccination programme.”
According to The Guardian, hospital and care home authorities are now reporting abnormally high staff shortages. Around 25% of clinical and administrative staff are missing in the county of Kent, which is considered to be one of the hardest hit areas in the south east of England.
John Allingham, a GP representative on the local medical committee, said some clinics had staff shortages as high as 50%.
However, even if all staff were at work, there would not be enough people for the planned vaccination of 2 million citizens a week, acknowledged the head of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Martin Marshall.
“There are now enough of them to deliver the limited supplies we have”, – he declares. – “But we certainly don’t have enough staff to deliver a much larger programme in two or three weeks, and in the meantime we continue to deliver the flu vaccination programme as well as running normal activities in general practice.”