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Nurse shortage forces NHS hospital to shut critical-care bed


An NHS hospital in Norwich has had to close four beds in its high dependency unit because it does not have enough nurses to staff them.

Norfolk and Norwich university hospital (NNUH) decided on Monday to temporarily shut the beds in the Gissing ward of its critical care complex.

The beds, which are used for seriously ill patients, have been shut despite flu and other viruses that circulate at this time of year leaving more patients than usual suffering from breathing problems.

Hospital managers told doctors in an email that: “A decision has been made to temporarily close our GHDU beds and reduce to 20 bed capacity on our CCC [critical care complex] from today as the nursing staffing is insufficient to keep Gissing open.”

The closure is another stark illustration of both the lack of staff in the NHS, which in England has around 100,000 vacancies, and the extra strain winter is putting on hospitals.

NHS bosses warned recently that staff shortages were now so widespread that patients’ safety and quality of care are under threat.

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Source: The Guardian, 31 December 2019

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