NHS leaders have raised concerns over the “new mini Nightingales” as hospitals draw up plans for use with “minimal” nursing levels, The Independent has learned.
In December the NHS announced it would be launching eight “surge” hubs dubbed “mini Nightingales” to help hospitals manage increased admissions amid the Omicron wave.
These facilities would be able to admit about 100 patients and have been set up as temporary sites across eight NHS hospitals.
Details around the safety requirements and required staffing levels have yet to be published, however several NHS sources have said some hubs are planning to use a “low” ratio of 1:15 nurses to patients within the units.
One trust chief has called the staffing models a “disgrace” and says the hospitals should never be used.
Senior sources have questioned the safety of using a 1:15 ratio, although they said the risk would depend on how ill the patients being sent to the units are and whether there would be sufficient health care assistant support. However, sources have said the staffing models have yet to be finalised and so could change.
Source: The Independent, 20 January 2022
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