NHS staff fatigue poses ‘significant’ threat to patient safety, watchdog warns

Fatigue among frontline personnel causing them to make mistakes is a “significant” risk to patients, according to the Health Services Safety Investigation Body (HSSIB).

It “contributes directly and indirectly to patient harm”, yet is not properly appreciated as a risk by the NHS, possibly because of the perceived “heroism” of NHS staff.

Exhaustion has led to doctors and nurses harming patients by inserting feeding tubes in the wrong place, leaving swabs inside a woman who had just given birth and mislabelling blood samples.

But the NHS safety regulator for England also found that staff who are driving home after finishing a long shift could die in a road accident because they are extremely tired.

“Fatigue was found to have a negative impact on staff safety,” the HSSIB said in a report, which is based on interviews with about 100 staff and evidence from national organisations.

“A key risk related to this was staff driving home after a long shift and being involved in fatal car accidents or near misses.”

“This report lays bare the daily reality for nursing staff. They are overstretched, understaffed and regularly work beyond their hours caring for too many patients,” said Patricia Marquis, the Royal College of Nursing’s executive director for England.

“This drives dangerous levels of fatigue which not only harms patients but also follows staff home, with sometimes devastating consequences.

“Nursing fatigue is deadly and in health and care services should be treated as a public safety emergency.”

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Source: The Guardian, 24 April 2025