Staff absences at Queen Alexandra Hospital came to nearly 500 in week up to Boxing Day

The total number of staff absences from sickness and self-isolation was 474, according to data from the NHS.

However, this number represented a drop from the previous week in which there was 512 absences.

It comes after hospital bosses told The News they were facing a tough winter with limited bed capacity.

The figures also revealed there were 30 delays of 30-60 minutes when handing emergency patients from an ambulance to QA’s emergency department. There were 41 delays of 60 minutes.

The percentage of those delayed by more than 30 minutes was 8.42 per cent.

No patients needed to be diverted away from the emergency department.

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The data also showed that critical care beds were full in the week up to December 26. This was unchanged from the previous week.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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