STAFF at the NHS trust which runs Winchester hospital are thinking of leaving their jobs due to uncertainty in their roles.

As health workers continue to fight Covid-19, Hampshire Hospitals has revealed that morale among the almost the staff is falling.

During coronavirus employees have been working on different departments to help fill rotas and treat patients, but many are unsure whether they will be able to return to their normal places of work.

Chief nurse Julie Dawes said: “There are some people that are thrived on the last few weeks, they have risen to the occasion, they’ve enjoyed new opportunities, but there are also a great number of staff that the reality of the last few weeks is hitting home, whether that be through their own home, their own health, what they have seen and dealt with, the moving round to different areas and the toll that has taken.

“Our staff has been absolutely brilliant, but we have to remember that Covid has dropped into their lives like anybody else.

“We have got a fair amount of distressed staff in our organisation, we are hearing staff stories of hardship where staff members partners are at risk of losing their jobs, they haven’t been able to see members of their family like anybody else.

“We have hit that period at the moment where people are struggling a bit with this phase.”

She added: “We are starting to see early signs of people starting to look for other roles and potentially leaving the organisation particularly those areas where they have uncertainty where they don’t know at this point what they are going to be doing.”

The trust has said that support is available for those concerned but it recognises there is unease among staff about the future.

Chief medical officer Dr Lara Alloway added: “We are very aware now that it has been months that many people have not been working in their normal place of work and certainly for some of the ward nurses and teams of some of our ward areas that aren’t open or very restricted in opening they are being asked to go to different areas.

“We are very mindful that there is a lot of support available we are past the initial everyone in it together and that is becoming much more difficult for people.”

Despite the concern, staff were praised for how they have stepped up during the coronavirus fight, with chief executive Alex Whitfield saying they have been "amazing".