housing, very much valued because it started with trade unions occupying an empty top were blocked in london to protest thousand crisis and is politics on the picket line with the very bitter dispute that happened over two years in the 1970s but, more recently he challenged jeremy corbyn and was happy to serve under jeremy corbyn and many said that it was impossible to suggest that he came from any particular faction within the labour party. ijust want to run through a few tributes because these have been coming in across the political spectrum. keir starmer said that the proud son of irish parents who dedicated his life to working with working people and recognise for his determination to stand up for his constituents in the current deputy leader of the labour party described him as her great mentor as well as a friend and they
200 personnel have been deployed in london , with another 1800 in london, with another 1800 around the rest of the uk. our health correspondent katharine da costa reports. like many hospitals, kingston in south west london has been tackling a rise in covid admissions over christmas, and a busy a&e. that has been compounded by growing staff absences. 4% of staff here are off work due to covid, and that is having a big impact on morale. checking in is really important. we learned that in the first wave in the first five minutes, you check that everyone is ok and it goes a long way. the emotional support is key to allow people to be their best selves when they come to work. more than one in ten beds in england are occupied by patients who are fit enough to be discharged but need support from social care. 95 year old jean brownlee had a fall on christmas day. she is still waiting
services that goes along with bringing in relatively small numbers of staff in london as an option. and fire services. but ultimately, looking at 20,000 people, that s up 70% from novemberjust before the omicron wave hit. it is really impossible to replace those kinds of numbers talking about requiring a trained clinical staff to take a long time to train and get the job and so, looking at those measures, you are looking at short term plastering things up and dealing with things otherwise by prioritising some services so you can see the staff for example, some less essential, less urgent community services or outpatient
these figures are really stark. outside of health care, staffing shortages are closing shops and cancelling trains. but nurses can t stop helping their patients, so what s happening instead is that they re finding themselves being spread thinner and thinner, but they can t keep doing that indefinitely. the situation is not safe. from assisting paramedics to bolstering teams at testing sites and vaccination centres, more than 1,800 service personnel have already been deployed across the uk. around 90 are preparing to assist three health boards in scotland, while in england, 200 army medics and soldiers are being deployed across hospitals in london. this winter, there is an extraordinary pressure on our nhs. it is our duty to be a sticking plasterfor the nhs to help get through a time of extraordinary crisis. these are unprecedented times. while there are early signs that cases may be slowing in london,
the situation is not safe. from assisting paramedics to bolstering teams at testing sites and vaccination centres, more than 1,800 service personnel have already been deployed across the uk. around 90 are preparing to assist three health boards in scotland, while in england, 200 army medics and soldiers are being deployed across hospitals in london. this winter, there is an extraordinary pressure on our nhs. it is our duty to be a sticking plasterfor the nhs to help get through a time of extraordinary crisis. these are unprecedented times. while there are early signs that cases may be slowing in london, it s too soon to know the full impact of the new omicron variant on hospitals. 7,000 army forces personnel are on standby if more reinforcements are needed. katharine da costa, bbc news. earlier i spoke to our health correspondent, nick triggle, who talked us