Exclusive: Nearly 1000 Harrogate hospital staff absent in April due to coronavirus
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Last updated Jun 3, 2020

Nearly 1000 staff at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust were absent from work because of coronavirus in the first month of lockdown.

The vast majority of the 974 took time off to self-isolate with coronavirus symptoms for an average of nine days – the rest will shield themselves until the end of June.

It means that one in five of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust’s staff have taken time off and it has come at a major cost.

In the first month of the financial year, from April 6, the Trust paid out £478,000 for sickness at full pay. The figures come from a report from the Trust’s Board of Directors seen by The Stray Ferret which details its finances.

What has Harrogate District Hospital Trust spent coronavirus money on?

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust spent just over £1 million on its coronavirus response in the same period – which was in line with other Trusts in the region. The report says the Trust received money from the NHS centrally to cover it.

Most of the money was spent on sick pay but the report also highlights what else the Trust has spent its money on:

  • £216,000 to help set up the NHS Nightingale Yorkshire and the Humber
  • £145,000 on other costs
  • £101,000 on expanding the Trust’s medical, nursing and other workforces
  • £40,000 on additional shifts for the existing workforce
  • £34,000 on the segregation of patient pathways
  • £22,000 on increasing capacity in the Intensive Treatment Unit
  • £17,000 on coronavirus testing in NHS laboratories

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