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Showing results for tags 'Additional staff required'.
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News Article
Gloucestershire maternity units still shut after staff shortages
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Maternity services in Gloucestershire will remain shut for months because of staff shortages, it has been confirmed. The Aveta Birth Unit in Cheltenham and Stroud's post-natal facilities are not expected to re-open until at least October, bosses say. The announcement by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust means women will have been unable to use the services for more than a year. Maternity campaigners say new mothers are not getting support they need. The trust said it had a long-term commitment to both units, but they cannot reopen safely at the moment. The Aveta unit has been shut since last June and Stroud's six postnatal beds have been closed since September. It means new mothers are forced to go home 12 hours after giving birth, or if they have medical needs being sent to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Read full story Source: BBC News, 19 May 2023 -
News Article
Ministers told to set out plan for hiring mental health nurses in England
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
UK ministers must set out how to recruit and retain thousands more mental health nurses to plug the profession’s biggest staff shortage, healthcare leaders are warning. Mental health nurses account for nearly a third of all nursing vacancies across England, resulting in overstretched services that are struggling to deliver timely care, according to research carried out by the NHS Confederation’s mental health network. Sean Duggan, the network’s chief executive, said: “Mental health leaders and their teams are pulling out all the stops in what are very constrained circumstances, but they cannot be expected to solve this staffing crisis alone. “The knock-on effect means that the mental health crisis the nation is facing will in turn become a crisis for the whole healthcare system and the country. This relentless pressure on mental health staff cannot be allowed to continue with the ultimate impact being on the patients who most need that care.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 16 May 2023 -
News ArticleNurses fear they could be taken to court or struck off over the level of care they are able to give to patients, a union has warned, as the NHS stands on the brink of six more months of strikes. The Royal College of Nursing, one of the two unions to turn down the recent government pay offer to NHS staff, revealed that over nine in 10 A&E nurses had raised concerns that patients may be receiving unsafe care and that patient dignity, privacy and confidentiality is compromised. Six in 10 fear they will be struck off the nursing register or have a court case brought against them as a result of patient harm due to their working conditions, the RCN said. Ms Cullen insisted that patient safety is “at the centre of everything that we do” but warned that it “cannot be guaranteed on any day of the week”, given it is missing 47,000 nurses “every single day and night”. Speaking before its annual congress in Brighton, which begins on Monday, some nurses described themselves as “broken” and feeling “suicidal”, with corridor treatment being deemed “degrading for patients” and as “destroying staff morale”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 May 2023
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News ArticleStaff shortages forced pharmacies to shut for 100,000 hours in a year, new figures show, just as the government has unveiled plans to shift more GP work their way. The data, shared exclusively with The Independent by the organisation which represents pharmacies in England, also showed that almost 1,000 establishments closed for good between October 2016 and November 2022. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) figures revealed that pharmacies in the most deprived areas were more likely to shut permanently due to lack of staff, with areas such as Birmingham and Manchester among the worst affected. The figures come as the government announced plans on Tuesday to allow pharmacists to prescribe medicines for conditions including earache, sore throats and urinary tract infections without GP involvement. However, experts have said the plans are unlikely to significantly reduce pressure on GP practices as prescriptions for these conditions make up just 3 per cent of all appointments. And the King’s Fund health think tank warned of the potential for a postcode lottery – saying some pharmacies will not be able to offer the services because they may not have access to diagnostic tools, or sufficient staff and consultation rooms. Read full story Source: The Independent, 10 May 2023
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News Article
School-leavers could join NHS via apprenticeships in plan to fix staff shortages
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
School-leavers could receive on-the-job training as part of an attempt to help address NHS workforce shortages, under plans to allow tens of thousands of doctors and nurses to join the health service via apprenticeships. Up to 1 in 10 doctors and a third of nurses could be trained through this vocational path in the coming years under the NHS workforce plan. The NHS’s doctor apprenticeship scheme is due to start in September, where medics in training will be able to earn money while they study. The concept was first introduced as an alternative route into medicine circumventing the standard undergraduate or graduate university programmes. Dr Latifa Patel, workforce lead for the British Medical Association, said innovative approaches to education and training are welcome but there were huge question marks over how far medical apprenticeships can solve the recruitment crisis. Patel said: “We don’t know if medical schools and employing organisations are going to be able to produce medical degree programmes to meet individual apprenticeship needs while also meeting the same high standards of training experienced by traditional medical students. “We have little evidence on whether the apprentice model will work at scale, and whether employers will want to take the investment risk with no guarantee of a return." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 10 May 2023 -
News Article
NHS managers covering up issues - whistleblower
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Managers at a medical rehabilitation unit are "covering it up" when issues are raised, a whistleblower has said. The whistleblower claimed Cambridge Rehabilitation Unit (CRU) management bullied staff who flagged concerns over shortages and unsafe practice. Documents detail claims of "dangerous" staffing levels, patients left in bed all day without therapy and a one-star food hygiene rating. Through the Freedom of Information Act, the BBC discovered three whistleblowing complaints were made to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) between May and August last year. The first said wards "run on dangerous levels of staff" and no action was taken when staff flagged concerns. The second stated there was "bullying occurring from management when staff raise concerns regarding short staffing and unsafe practice". They said: "When issues relating to patient safety are raised... management are 'covering it up'." Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 May 2023 -
News Article
‘One nurse per ward’ warning over next week’s strike
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A major acute trust has warned ahead of next week’s nursing strike that it will face ‘very severe staffing shortages’ in children’s A&E, with ‘as few as one nurse per ward’, much less critical care capacity, and fewer operating theatres open than on Christmas Day. Cambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust’s medical director said in a note, seen by HSJ, that the hospital would only have 60 to 70% of its critical care beds open and that “it is not possible to guarantee patient safety on our wards over the forthcoming weekend” with severe staffing shortages in “almost all areas”. The Royal College of Nursing is planning no derogations (exceptions) to its planned 48-hour walkout, from 8pm on Sunday until 8pm on Tuesday, whereas its previous action has exempted emergency care. There have been national warnings about the significant safety threat posed, but the CUH message, sent to all staff by medical director Ashley Shaw, sets out a more stark picture of critical services scaled back. It says: ”Our current information indicates there will be a severe shortage of nurses in almost all ward areas, with as few as 1 nurse per ward per shift." Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 26 April 2023 -
News Article
Priory Group whistleblowers 'concerned for patient safety'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Two former senior managers at a large mental healthcare provider have told the BBC they had concerns about the safety of patients and staff. The whistleblowers claim they felt pressure to cut costs and fill beds. The Priory Group, which receives more than £600m of public money each year, is the biggest single private provider of mental health services to the NHS. The company denies the claims and says it successfully treats tens of thousands of patients each year. It adds its services "remain amongst the safest in the UK". The former members of the Priory Group's senior management said that, when they were working for the company, they found it difficult to recruit or retain staff, due to poor pay and conditions. They believe this resulted in patients being placed on wards that did not have staff equipped with the right skills to handle their conditions. Read full story Source: BBC News, 26 April 2023 -
News ArticlePatients were left on trolleys for up to four days at a major NHS hospital where whistleblowers raised concerns over “unsafe” staffing levels, it has emerged. In a scathing report, the NHS safety watchdog said it found patients waiting on trolleys, in corridors and outside nursing bays at Good Hope and Heartlands hospital, run by the scandal-hit University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. In one incident flagged by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a patient’s skin ulcers had grown significantly worse while they waited for four days on a trolley without an appropriate mattress. At the time of the inspection, most patients had been waiting for more than two days on trolleys, according to the CQC. The inspection took place in December, after concerns were raised by patients and families over care. The CQC said staff told inspectors they’d been left in “unsafe situations” due to poor staffing. Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 April 2023
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News Article
Pharmacies on ‘brink of collapse’ in England
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
England’s pharmacies are on the brink of collapse – struggling with a shortage of staff and medical supplies – combined with increased patient demand and soaring costs, according to an industry survey shared exclusively with this programme. Staff say that some patients are so frustrated by the supply problems, they’re getting aggressive. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the industry body which carried out the survey, says the Government and NHS need to step in now, before it’s too late. View video Source: Channel 4 News, 12 April 2023 -
News Article
Junior doctors’ strike: hospitals ‘worried about overnight patient safety’
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Hospital bosses are worried about keeping patients safe overnight this week because of a shortage of consultants available to cover for striking junior doctors. When junior doctors in England staged their first strike in mid-March in their pay dispute with the government, their consultant colleagues covered for them for the three days involved. However, fewer consultants are available to do the same during this week’s four-day stoppage because it coincides with Easter, Passover and Ramadan and many are off. NHS Providers, which represents health service trusts, highlighted the difficulty hospital bosses are facing in trying to ensure nightshift medical rotas are fully staffed this week. T “Getting through today is just the start. Trust leaders are worried about securing adequate cover for the night shifts ahead. This is going to be a very long, difficult week for the NHS,” said Miriam Deakin, the head of policy at NHS Providers. “Keeping patients as safe as possible, trusts’ No 1 priority, will be even harder than in previous strikes so it’s all hands on deck.” Other health professionals, including GPs, paramedics and pharmacists, were helping hospitals ensure patients received good care, Deakin added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 11 April 2023 -
News ArticleA leading surgeon says a major drop-out rate of trainee doctors is "an accident waiting to happen" for the NHS. Nigel Mercer was tasked with prioritising surgery across the NHS during the pandemic when services were under intense pressure. His biggest fear with what he sees as an up to 40% drop-out rate is whether there will be enough doctors to replace his generation of medics. The government said the majority of trainees go on to work in the NHS. "[But] at the moment everyone is so fed up with the system," Mr Mercer said Concerns over pay and conditions are leading many trainees to consider moving to other countries, he said. "You can get much more pay over in Australia and New Zealand and we reckon it's now 40% of medical graduates who are going to leave after their training and that's criminal," he continued. "That's an accident waiting to happen, but if we don't produce high-quality paramedical staff there won't be the ability to train anybody. Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 April 2023
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News Article
'Ticking time bomb' – here's how many NHS staff actually want to quit
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
More than three quarters of NHS workers are seriously considering leaving their jobs amid the ongoing strain on the health service. According to research from the worker-led network Organise – which surveyed 2,546 NHS staff in March – 78.5% are thinking about packing it all in. Only a fifth (21.5%) said they had no plan to give up their NHS job any time soon. And the survey shows this sentiment is shared across a range of professions within the health service – with nurses, healthcare assistants, paramedics, doctors, health visitors and more all struggling with their jobs right now. This comes after years of public concerns about the longevity of the health service, amid funding cuts, staff shortages and burnout – not to mention the additional strain from the Covid pandemic. The findings also show that in the last three years: 79% of respondents experienced stress 62% reported anxiety 55% reported burnout. More than half (55%) of respondents said they needed to take time off from their jobs as a result, with a quarter saying this meant a month or more away from work. Read full story Source: Huffington Post, 29 March 2023 -
News Article
Survey finds 'alarming' number of vacancies in speech and language therapy
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
The chief executive of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) said it is "alarming" that a survey found almost 1 in 4 jobs are vacant across the UK. A survey by the professional body found speech and language therapy (SLT) vacancies across the UK had reached 23% with almost all children's services (96%) and 9 out of 10 adult services (90%) which responded saying recruitment is more or much more challenging than at any time in the past three years. A delay to receiving SLT support can affect a person's ability to communicate with friends and family or to eat and drink as well as a child's ability to access the school curriculum, to regulate their behaviour or to form friendships. The COVID-19 pandemic added to the pressure on SLT services, exacerbating waiting times for assessment and support, as well as adding referrals to see young children whose language and social development was hampered by pandemic restrictions which meant they were not mixing with other children or adults at play groups, nurseries, and schools. RCSLT's new Chief Executive, Steve Jamieson, said, "By the time they are seen by a SLT their needs are a lot more complex and difficult to manage and to treat.” Read full story Source: Medscape, 5 April 2023 -
News Article
Bupa to cut 85 dental practices in staff shortage
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Bupa is set to cut 85 dental practices amid a national shortage of dentists, in a move that will affect 1,200 staff across the UK. The group said patients at some practices were unable to access the NHS dental service they need. Bupa, which provides NHS and private care, said the 85 practices would be closed, sold or merged later this year. The healthcare group's boss said the industry faced "systematic challenges" and the decision was a "last resort". In August the BBC revealed 9 in 10 NHS dental practices across the UK were not accepting new adult patients for treatment under the health service. Bupa has not been able to recruit enough dentists to deliver NHS care in many practices for months and in some cases years, it said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 March 2023 -
News Article
Will Jeremy Hunt foot the bill for NHS staffing? The signs aren’t promising
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
“There’s a gap today that no locum filled, so I am carrying both bleeps and doing the work of two people.” That recent tweet, by a children’s doctor, is one of many examples posted on social media by medics illustrating how NHS staff shortages affect them, patients, the smooth running of important services – and, sometimes, the safety of those who are receiving care. It is a concern shared by every organisation that represents frontline staff, by regulators such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and by NHS England, the body that oversees the service. In January the CQC reported that an inspection it had undertaken of Colchester hospital in Essex found patients were missing out on meals because there were too few staff on duty to feed them. Some patients were wearing dirty dressings, and others did not have their call bells answered promptly, for the same reason. In a letter to the trust that runs the hospital, it said: “All wards’ actual staffing levels and skill mix meant staff were often overstretched. All staff we spoke with expressed concern about the impact on patient care and personal wellbeing. “Some staff we spoke to were tearful, reported feeling exhausted and concerned that they were unable to care for patients well enough to keep them safe.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 March 2023 -
News Article
Invest in health workforce or risk collapse, WHO warns governments
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Last year the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report warning of a “ticking time bomb” threatening health systems in Europe and Central Asia: a growing shortage of health workers. With quickly ageing populations and an ageing health workforce—40% of doctors in Europe are close to retirement in a third of countries—along with a surge in chronic illnesses and the ongoing effects of the covid pandemic, WHO warned that many countries could soon see their healthcare systems collapse unless they take urgent action. Six months on, the situation has worsened, as healthcare workers throughout Europe increasingly resort to industrial action over pay and conditions. Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said, “The health workforce crisis in Europe is no longer a looming threat—it is here and now. Health providers and workers across our region are clamouring for help and support... “We cannot wait any longer to address the pressing challenges facing our health workforce. The health and wellbeing of our societies are at stake—there is simply no time to lose.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: BMJ, 24 March 2023 -
News ArticleThe NHS in England needs a massive injection of homegrown doctors, nurses, GPs and dentists to avert a recruitment crisis that could leave it short of 571,000 staff, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian. A long-awaited workforce plan produced by NHS England says the health service is already operating with 154,000 fewer full-time staff than it needs, and that number could balloon to 571,000 staff by 2036 on current trends. The 107-page blueprint, which is being examined by ministers, sets out detailed proposals to end the understaffing that has plagued the health service for years. It says that without radical action, the NHS in England will have 28,000 fewer GPs, 44,000 fewer community nurses and an even greater lack of paramedics within 15 years. However, the Guardian understands that the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is playing a key role in behind-the-scenes moves by the Treasury to water down NHS England’s proposals to double the number of doctors that the UK trains and increase the number of new nurses trained every year by 77% – because it would cost several billion pounds to do that. A senior NHS leader said: “Jeremy Hunt has been very resistant to the numbers in the workforce plan. The Treasury and Hunt don’t want numbers in it. They want it to be not very precise. They want the numbers to be projected in a different way that would be less expensive and to not commit to training specific numbers of doctors, nurses and others. “While intellectually Hunt gets it, and emotionally he gets the patient safety argument, it seems that his priority, if the government has any financial headroom, is to use that for tax cuts or giving the army more money rather than training more doctors, nurses and speech and language therapists. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 March 2023
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News Article
NHS warned ‘cramming’ A&Es with medics is not working
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS’s efforts to prop up emergency departments with thousands of additional medical staff has been the wrong approach to solving the crisis in these services, experts have argued. Analysis of NHS staffing data by HSJ shows the emergency care medical workforce has grown by almost two-thirds since 2016, far outstripping the growth in other specialties. Despite this, waiting times in accident and emergency have deteriorated significantly over the same period. John Appleby, chief economist at the Nuffield Trust think tank, said: “Cramming the A&E department with more doctors doesn’t look like it’s having the intended effect over the last four to five years. Waiting times have got worse and we have more staff. “Increasing staffing has helped with waiting times in the past, but maybe we have reached a point where it’s not staffing in A&E which is the issue. The issue is the front door and the backdoor of the A&E.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 17 March 2023 -
Content ArticleThe Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) ‘Wales' Emergency Medicine Workforce Census 2023’ is an in-depth analysis of the state of the Emergency Medicine workforce, providing an insight into the working patterns of clinicians and allowing a forecast to be made around the future workforce needs of Emergency Departments in Wales.
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Content ArticleYou can now watch the recording of the Nuffield Trust event: 'Does the rush for new types NHS staff have a dark side?'
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Content ArticleIn this interview for The Guardian, Pat Cullen, General Secretary of Royal College of Nursing (RCN), talks about how RCN members are being forced to use food banks, her frustration with the government and how she learned to be a tough negotiator. She discusses the issues that led to nurses balloting to strike—violence, sexual assault, unsafe staffing levels and pay that has not kept up with inflation—and outlines the difficult realities of being a nurse in the NHS. She also describes the negotiations with the Government, who according to Cullen, refused to discuss nurses' pay.
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Content ArticleEmergency access to healthcare is in crisis. Unmet need in primary and community care and low capacity in hospitals and social care has left the emergency health services gridlocked and overwhelmed, unable to provide safe care. This Cross party House of Lords Public Services Committee report recommends that a COBR Committee be assigned the responsibility to address the crisis in emergency healthcare. In the long-term, it recommends a a substantial overhaul is needed, one which sets out a bold new operating model for the system as a whole, and which is backed by equally bold leadership.
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Content Article
In this blog Patient Safety Learning considers the impact on patient safety of the shortage of hospital beds facing the NHS this winter. It focuses on two specific issues stemming from this, the increasing numbers of patients being cared for in corridors and other non-clinical areas, and current proposals to reduce the number of patients waiting to be discharged.- Posted
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Content ArticleThe health service needs to develop innovative ways of treating an increasingly elderly and frail population, while harnessing new technology to help mitigate the staffing crisis. As part of the Times Health Commission, this article outlines some potential solutions — encompassing new ways of working and regulation to promote healthier lifestyles — to some aspects of the health and social care crisis in the UK.
