Trust tells clinicians ‘we’ll support you’ over safety risks caused by covid pressures

A trust has written to its registered workforce to reassure them of management support when delivering care in ‘extremely challenging circumstances’.

Derbyshire Community Health Services Trust sent out a “statement of support for professionally registered colleagues”, in which it thanked them for their “continued efforts”, and explained how they would support staff from a “professional and regulatory perspective”, when delivering services that require “a high level of clinical knowledge and autonomous decision-making”.

This week has seen NHS staff absences hit new highs – over 100,000 – and the military brought in to support care in London hospitals, in combination with very high community covid transmission rates and very busy acute trusts. 

The DCHST email, signed by executive director of nursing Michelle Bateman, executive medical director Ben Pearson and interim director of Allied Health Professionals Trish Bailey, said: “When services are at this high level of escalation it can mean that we are not always able to deliver care in the way we would like and that can challenge our professional values.”

Helen Hughes, chief executive of charity Patient Safety Learning, said Derbyshire Community Healthcare’s message needed to be echoed by every trust in the country.

“Without sufficient staffing resources, difficult decisions are required to prioritise care,” Ms Hughes said. “In some cases, delays in treatment as a result of these decisions could lead to avoidable harm.”

She stressed it was “imperative” that future investigations into safety incidents “properly reflect the systemic nature of reasons for error or harm, not simply blaming staff for failures to provide safe care”.

“Health professionals’ codes mean that they are not allowed to work outside their sphere of competence. But what if staff are being tacitly encouraged or required to work in an unsafe system? Staff need to be able to feel secure in raising any concerns they have, being listened to and being supported,” Ms Hughes added.

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Source: HSJ, 10 January 2022