More than 110,000 NHS staff — nearly one in 10 — were absent on New Year’s Eve, according to figures showing that Covid is hitting healthcare far harder than previously thought.
Of them, almost 50,000 were at home sick or self-isolating because of Covid-19 while patients faced 40-hour waits at A&E, late operations, closed wards and long ambulance delays.
Boris Johnson has told ministers to test emergency contingency plans to minimise the disruption to services such as hospitals, schools and social care. Public sector leaders have been told to prepare for a worst-case scenario of workforce absences of 25 per cent.
The 110,000 figure refers to all NHS staff. On Friday NHS England released sickness data relating to acute hospitals up to December 26, which
