A majority also say the NHS is still under “a lot” of pressure despite COVID cases falling
While news of issues with coronavirus testing capacity has been more scant in the current lockdown than last year, the latest YouGov data suggests that problems persist.
Two thirds of NHS employees (64%) say staff shortages from colleagues not being able to access coronavirus tests have affected their workplace since the start of the year.
The figure includes a fifth (19%) who say it has impacted their workplace to ‘a great extent’, while a quarter (27%) say ‘to some extent’, and 18% to ‘a small extent’.
Private healthcare staff are much less likely to report staff shortages from colleagues being unable to access tests (42% vs 64% of public sector staff), although two fifths have also experienced it this year.
Most NHS workers say their workplace is still under a lot of pressure
Only 8% of NHS workers said the NHS was overwhelmed when surveyed between 9-18 February, which is the same as during 22-31 January.
But two thirds (64%) reported the pandemic continuing to put ‘a lot’ of pressure on their workplace. Another three in ten NHS workers (30%) are experiencing some pressure, while only one in twenty say ‘not very much’ (4%) or ‘none’ (1%).
Healthcare workers in the private sector are more positive, although two in five (38%) say there’s still significant pressure from the pandemic, while 41% reports some, and a fifth say ‘not very much’ (14%) or ‘none’ (6%).
