Norfolk social care under the cosh, says council director

Social care across a county is "under the cosh" with a 20% reduction in staff and greater demand, the director for the service has said.

The Norfolk and Waveney health and care system went into a critical incident last week due to staff absences from Covid and an influx of patients.

James Bullion said Norfolk was "struggling" to find the right care for 870 people, 200 of whom were in hospital.

"It's unprecedented," he added.

"It's a really pressured situation, so we are struggling with the amount of care we need against the amount of sickness we are experiencing," he told BBC Look East.

Recently retired staff had already responded to a call to carry out welfare visits, but a further 150 volunteers were needed, he said.

"I've never experienced anything like this in my whole career of 30 years in social care where we have a wave of disruption brought by the pandemic, and Omicron, which is so infectious," he added.

"Before Omicron, Brexit had already reduced staff by about 4%, then on top of that, vaccination [requirement] meant another 4% of residential home care staff walked away from the job.

"So we already had a gap and a vacancy of about 10%, when you add extra sickness of 10% due to Omicron, you're talking about the workforce reducing by 20%.

"We are really under the cosh at the moment."

The Norfolk and Waveney health and care system, which includes hospitals, social care, mental health and ambulances, has previously said services were under unprecedented pressure and it was working with partners to create additional capacity.

Earlier in the week, it emerged the chief nurse at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals (NNUH) NHS Trust asked staff to fit seven beds in a bay meant for six, describing it as a "battle situation".

Meanwhile, the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust said in the past week around 400 members of staff have been absent each day, equating to 5-6% of the workforce.

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