Coronavirus: Number of Queen Alexandra Hospital staff who have tested positive for Covid-19 revealed

Staff testing became available at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust on March 21 and up until July 5, there had been 1,589 employee swab tests with 11.8 per cent testing positive, according to the trust’s most recent board papers.

Antibody testing started on May 29 and between then and July 5, 7,279 members of staff, including military, bank staff and Engie-employed staff, have been tested.

Of those 13.4 per cent were given a positive rate.

A staff member working for the Patient Food Service at Queen Alexandra Hospital told The News that she had tested positive for antibodies but had not been ill.

The papers also laid out the number of staff absences related to Covid-19 – both confirmed and unconfirmed cases – between March 17 and July 13.

The report read: ‘To date there has been a total of 1,404 absence occasions relating to Covid-19 sickness absence of which; 943 absences (67.2 per cent) were within our white workforce, 445 (31.7 per cent) were within our ethnic minority workforce and the remaining 16 occasions (1.1 per cent) within our ‘not stated’ workforce.

‘It is important to note, that whilst staff from within our white workforce have a higher number of Covid-19 absence occasions compared to staff from an ethnic minority background, the 943 occasions affected 875 of our white staff which equates to only 14 per cent of our total white workforce.

‘Staff from an ethnic minority background demonstrate proportionately higher levels of absence with 408 staff affected, representing 26.4 per cent of our workforce from a minority ethnic background.

The board were told that no hotspots of illness had been identified in staff departments.

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The chief executive and director of workforce and organisational development, Nicole Cornelius met with the vice chair of the Ethnic Minority Staff Network, Osvaldo De Alva in April to discuss the impact on ethnic minority staff.

A letter was sent to the every member of staff from an ethnic minority background on May 7 outlining the steps being taken to support them, including personal protective equipment, absence reporting, staff testing, workplace health assessments and psychological support available for them 24/7.

The absence figures from the board papers also showed that, between March 17 and July 13, there were 1,341 absences for self isolation, 218 for confirmed shielding and 22 occasions for staff stranded abroad.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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