Staff at Dorset County Hospital asked to work from home due to fuel crisis

With fuel shortages continuing in the county for more than a week, staff at the Dorchester-based hospital have been advised to work from home or use public transport and car share if possible.

It comes after calls were made for the Government to prioritise frontline and healthcare workers at the pumps. No such plan has been actioned so far.

A spokesperson for Dorset County Hospital Foundation Trust said: "Our transport team has done an amazing job keeping our staff updated on where they can source fuel supplies.

"We have encouraged staff to work from home if they can until the situation eases and to use public transport and car share if possible (with appropriate infection control measures in place)."

Meanwhile emergency services, health organisations and local authorities across Dorset have been warning of "significant risk of disruption" to health and social care services across Dorset as shortages have left critical workers struggling to get to work.

The county's public sector agencies say increasing numbers of staff who need fuel to get to work at hospitals, as well as workers who deliver care to vulnerable people in their homes, are facing difficulties. The risks are coming on top of partner agencies already under pressure because of staff absences due to the pandemic.

And members of the public are being urged not to panic-buy at the pumps to avoid worsening the crisis.

Pam O’Shea, deputy director of nursing at NHS Dorset CCG said: “We would ask people to be mindful of how their actions by panic buying fuel affects our frontline health and social care staff who we depend on to be able to travel to deliver care to the sick, vulnerable and dying people within our communities."

Echoing her sentiments, councillor Laura Miller, portfolio holder for Adult Social Care and Health at Dorset Council, said: “Please just take what you need. Buying fuel normally means that social care workers can get to our vulnerable people. We can get through this, but it means being thoughtful. Remember that someone’s elderly relative is sitting on their own waiting for their carer to come.”

Earlier this week Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said health and care workers should be given priority at petrol pumps to prevent “people losing their lives.”

Labour MP Mr Ashworth was asked by BBC Radio 4’s World at One if fuel should be reserved for doctors, nurses and carers.

He replied: “Yes, and we are facing a crisis, because if doctors and nurses, midwives, if care assistants cannot get to the bedsides of their patients, then people will be left stranded, people will be left in the most desperate of circumstances. Some people could end up losing their lives, that’s how serious this is.”

Mr Ashworth also called on Health Secretary Sajid Javid to meet with health and care unions to make an agreement about how to resolve the risks for patients.

He said: “We need urgency and we need grip, we haven’t had that so far, so Sajid Javid, if you are listening to this now, get the workforce representative bodies on a call, and get an agreement because we cannot leave vulnerable, desperate patients stranded without the care they deserve.”