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. the uk health secretary sajid javid has been speaking to reporters well, we can speak now to dave west, who s the deputy editor of the health service journal. he joins us live from south east london. saying that they re concerned about some hospital care might not be safe because of staff shortages. safetif because of staff shortages. safety and health services because of staff shortages. safety and health services cannot - because of staff shortages. safety and health services cannot run - because of staff shortages. safetyl and health services cannot run with in sufficient numbers of staff and staff like registered nurses and other clinical professions and figures that hsg has published this morning since there is now 120,000 absences reported just over the last couple of days across the nhs and
this is a clear indication that the nhs is not coping. this is too little, too late it certainly does not go far enough to support the nhs in all the ways it needs at the moment. it will help, but it won t solve the problem. nearly 2,000 military personnel have already been deployed across the uk. a further 7,000 are on standby. in scotland, 90 personnel are preparing to assist three health boards, as the nhs braces itself for yet another winter wave of admissions. katharine da costa, bbc news. our health correspondent jim reed joins me now. the figures paint a mixed picture, overall pressure on the nhs and covid causing an increasing number of absences, an average tuesday last week 80,000 nhs staff of work each day. that is up from 71,000 the
ago they will all close down with some regret for some, including me. we replace them with military wings of civilian hospitals. at frimley park, not very far from where i am, there is a military wing staffed by military personnel, but they work throughout the hospital, so they are helping in the a&e, helping conduct operations amongst the civilian community in this region and they do the same in peterborough. they are used to dealing with the nhs on a regular basis and dealing with civilian patients in all sorts of capacities, everything from a&e to scans, mri and conducting operations. and being on the wards with the nursing staff and so on. for the guys and girls concern with this, this is any sense no different to what they are doing day to day. there may be others who come in from the medical regiments, which are purely military, and indeed the medicalfield hospitals, which are purely military, but most of them i
think as we have done quite a lot in the path of supporting the nhs and the path of supporting the nhs and the public, we are going to be there reallyjust supporting, helping, not alwaysjust reallyjust supporting, helping, not always just helping with the vaccinations but also helping with the queue system and being in the military, a lot of the public think when they listen to us they didn t quite listen to others, so when we are seeing leave the distance in a queue, they actually listen to us. the public have been absolutely amazing. in the past we have had some of the nice thank youse, and with the nhs they really like us, especially being an ex military person going into that environment with my experience, they really liked the fact that we have this experience, we know how to handle things. it is really good. haifa
highlights the staffing crisis within the nhs. the prime minister has said that the nhs will cope. this is a clear indication that the nhs is not coping. this is too little, too late it certainly does not go far enough to support the nhs in all the ways it needs at the moment. it will help, but it won t solve the problem. nearly 2,000 military personnel have already been deployed across the uk. a further 7,000 are on standby. in scotland, 90 personnel are preparing to assist three health boards, as the nhs braces itself for yet another winter wave of admissions. katharine da costa, bbc news. let s speak now to the retired british army major general tim cross who previously commanded a brigade that included medical regiments, including running medical services. what difference do you believe military personnel can make to the