Skip to main content
Hospital workers forced to pay hefty bills after accommodation funds dry up despite second Covid wave
Government urged to continue to fund hotel beds for frontline staff
NHS workers outside Downing Street in August protest against the government's treatment

KEY NHS workers billeted in hotels since April to help hospitals deal with the Covid-19 pandemic may have to foot their own bills from Saturday, the Star can reveal.

Outsourced workers from St James’s hospital in Leeds contacted the Star today after they were told on Thursday that NHS England was no longer paying for their accommodation.

An operating-department practitioner (ODP), who was transferred to the hospital’s Covid ward in March, told the Star today – on condition of anonymity – that the change in circumstance had left him in a dire situation.

Donate to the Fighting Fund
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
The crowd at Manchester Punk Festival 2024 [Photo credit Gis
Culture / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
knee
Features / 13 March 2025
13 March 2025
Ben Cowles previews his interview with Stand Up to Racism’s SABBY DHALU for the Morning Star’s new Youtube channel
Similar stories
Keep NHS Public
Features / 17 March 2025
17 March 2025
Behind Starmer’s headline-grabbing abolition of NHS England lies a ruthless drive to centralise control so that cuts of £6.6 billion can be made — even if it means reducing cancer services and clinical staff, writes JOHN LISTER