Have NHS staff been redeployed due to COVID-19?

YouGov’s latest healthcare workers research finds that around one in seven NHS staff have been redeployed from their normal duties during the pandemic

The pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced the NHS to make major changes, with the majority of NHS workers saying normal services have yet to return to normal. Further to this, some 14% of NHS staff say they have been redeployed to carry out other duties outside of their normal job, including one in five NHS staff aged between 18 and 34 (21%) taking on new duties during the pandemic.

Breaking this down, 8% of NHS staff say they have been redeployed to assist in intensive care wards or units, while the same proportion of staff (8%) have been asked to care for patients with COVID. Elsewhere some 6% have been drafted from other roles in to look after non-COVID patients.

Among registered NHS nurses and midwives one in ten (10%) say they’ve been redeployed to intensive care wards and units at some point during the pandemic.

Another one in six nurses and midwives (11%) say they’ve been redeployed to care for other non-intensive care patients with COVID-19, and 10% have been asked to care for non-COVID patients where they would not normally do so.

Learn more about YouGov Healthcare research here

See full results here