i admit i can't see to do what i used to do, but i would be in my own environment. life would be much more pleasant. hospitals are reaching capacity whilst seeing a sharp rise in staff shortages. i6 trusts are still in critical incident mode. the latest nhs data shows more than 35,000 staff at acute trusts were off each day on average, due to covid, after the 2nd of january. —— up to. that is 4% of the workforce and up 41% on the previous week. but there are regional differences. the north—east and yorkshire was hardest hit. there were more than 7,000 covid absences, which is 5% of staff and up by 79% on the previous week. in london, there were over 5,000 covid absences, or 3% of staff. that is down by 4% on the week before. these figures are really stark. outside of health care, staffing shortages are closing shops and cancelling trains.