Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
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 of their working conditions

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.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Red Devils' logo
Men’s Rugby League / 12 August 2025
12 August 2025

Fan group The 1873 issues scathing response to owners’ statement saying the club will not close

People inspect the damage at the Sheikh Radwan al-Taba UNRWA clinic following an Israeli army bombardment in Gaza City, August 6, 2025
Gaza / 6 August 2025
6 August 2025

Israeli media awash with leaks and rumours of Netanyahu’s plans to seize Gaza. Meanwhile, the unrelenting siege of Gaza continues unabated 

Demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags look on as the Ship to Gaza boat 'Handala' arrives at the port of Malmö, Sweden, May 8, 2024
Middle East / 29 July 2025
29 July 2025

Mr Smalls and 13 other Freedom Flotilla Coalition activists who tried to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza aboard the Handala ship remain in detention and on hunger strike

Similar stories
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