Staff at Royal Stoke University Hospital have been forced to resort to using food banks as pandemic and financial pressures pile up on the NHS, local councillors have been told.

An annual update on Royal Stoke University Hospital was given to Staffordshire Moorlands District Councillors at a meeting of the authority's Health Overview & Scrutiny Panel yesterday (Wednesday 27th July).

The hospital's Chief Executive Officer, Tracy Bullock, joined councillors via video link to give a presentation on the hospital's performance and the challenges that they are currently facing.

She painted a picture of underfunding and extreme pressures that have been exacerbated in recent years by the Covid pandemic.

Ms Bullock, who has worked for the NHS for 37 years, explained that the hospital is even needing to offer support to staff who are having to use food banks while working at the hospital due a lack of pay increases combined with the rising cost of living.

She told councillors: "Our staff have had the toughest two and a half years of their careers. The morale of staff in the NHS is really poor.

"We have been supporting staff with well-being programmes and supporting staff who are using food banks.

"There are more staff leaving the NHS than I have ever known. They can work in Asda for the same pay, so why would they want to work in a hospital with patients who have got Covid and put their lives at risk?"

She also explained that staff at the hospital working at Covid wards had died after catching the virus.

She said: "I lost six members of staff due to Covid because they worked on Covid wards in our hospital. That was on my watch and it's something I will carry with me forever.

"I've got a lot of staff who are off work sick and are physically unable to come back because their lungs are shot, and a lot who are off work with anxiety and stress."

Councillors described the situation at the hospital as "a tragedy".

Cllr Jill Salt said: "It's a tragedy what's happening. You paint a very negative picture, and I feel heartbroken because it doesn't appear you can get out of this hole. It's not something that we can even help with at district level, it has to come from the top down."

Cllr Bill Cawley said he thought many of the health issues that were piling more pressure on the hospital were brought on by poverty.

He said: "I have great sympathy with you. It feels like you've become a pinata which everyone takes a swing at. But how can this be when you operate in a city that has 40% of its children living in poverty according to the Child Poverty Action Group?

"You mentioned that you have food banks for your staff, and I think that is atrocious and appalling. I can't offer any cures or remedies, but the environment that you have to work in makes it feel like you've become a bit of a scapegoat."

Cllr Lyn Swindlehurst added: "It's 50 years since I started my nurse training and it breaks my heart to hear what they are being put through now. It seems to me that the health service is broken. We have had people here giving presentations and crying because they were so desperate."

She asked whether there was any way that the situation could improve in the future.

Ms Bullock replied: "Believe it or not I am a glass half full sort of person, although I have to be. I love the NHS and I do believe we can get out of it. As senior leaders we do need to collectively take some responsibility, make sure we are working together and make sure the limited resources we have are focusing on the right things."

You can watch the meeting in full on Staffordshire Moorlands District Council's webcast portal on its website.