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Hundreds of hospitals in England fail to reach safe staffing levels @katkeogh
More than half of England’s hospitals are failing to meet their own safe staffing targets for nurses, according to a national patient safety website. Some 282 of the 521 hospitals that submitted nurse staffing data to the NHS Choices safety indicators website did not meet their planned versus actual nursing numbers in August. Last year the government announced that every hospital in England would be required to publish staffing levels online as part of a push for transparency after the Mid Staffs scandal. The safety indicators website was launched in June this year by health secretary Jeremy Hunt and England’s chief nurse Jane Cummings.
Performance monitored
It allows the public to search for hospitals and find out how they are performing in areas such as staffing, infection control and cleanliness, and how many patients have experienced harms such as pressure ulcers or falls. The latest nurse staffing levels data, which relates to August this year, details the planned versus actual staffing levels for all inpatient wards.
JOHN HOULIHAN
By Kat Keogh
Susan Osborne of the Safe Staffing Alliance says the safety indicators website is a tick-box exercise
It shows that 239 hospitals either met or exceeded their planned levels, while 44 hospitals were operating at 90 per cent capacity or below. Safe Staffing Alliance chair Susan Osborne said the alliance had been contacted by staff working in hospitals where one nurse was expected to care for 14 patients. ‘Some trusts have the right staffing levels, but a worrying amount do not,’ she said. Ms Osborne warned the data could be ‘meaningless’ to the public because it does not indicate how many patients nurses in each hospital were having to care for.
‘While nurses are overstretched as it is, this is a tick-box exercise, and has not stopped unsafe staffing levels.’ From next spring, the safety indicator will include more detail, with hospitals given a green, red or amber ‘traffic light’ rating for nurse numbers. It will measure not only the number of staff on duty, but staff absences and use of agency nurses. A spokesperson for NHS England, which collates the data, said although staffing levels could temporarily be down in wards that are currently recruiting, it would expect trusts to give a full explanation on their website.
Regulators to encourage a more transparent health service Nurses and midwives have a duty to be open and honest with patients and own up to mistakes, according to new draft guidance from the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Last month, the NMC and the General Medical Council were among nine professional healthcare regulators to sign up to a joint statement setting out their commitment to a duty of candour. The move follows Sir Robert Francis’s call for a more open and transparent
culture in the NHS following the Mid Staffordshire care scandal. The draft guidance states that staff must tell patients or their families when something has gone wrong. They should apologise and offer an appropriate remedy or support to put matters right. It also calls on employers to support staff by maintaining an open workplace culture where people can learn from mistakes. RCN general secretary Peter Carter said: ‘In too many organisations there has
been a culture of blame, fear and secrecy, which makes it hard for staff to admit when things have gone wrong.’ He added that employers must lead by example and ensure their organisation has an open culture. A consultation is open until January 5, and the guidance is expected to be published in March. To take part in the consultation, go to www.nmc-uk.org/ candour-consultation
NURSING november :: vol 29without no 10 permission. :: 2014 7 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 24, 2015. For personal use only. No 5 other uses Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Share your news with us – email [email protected], call +44 (0)20 8872 3144 or @NurseStandard
Hundreds of hospitals in England fail to reach safe staffing levels @katkeogh
More than half of England’s hospitals are failing to meet their own safe staffing targets for nurses, according to a national patient safety website. Some 282 of the 521 hospitals that submitted nurse staffing data to the NHS Choices safety indicators website did not meet their planned versus actual nursing numbers in August. Last year the government announced that every hospital in England would be required to publish staffing levels online as part of a push for transparency after the Mid Staffs scandal. The safety indicators website was launched in June this year by health secretary Jeremy Hunt and England’s chief nurse Jane Cummings.
Performance monitored
It allows the public to search for hospitals and find out how they are performing in areas such as staffing, infection control and cleanliness, and how many patients have experienced harms such as pressure ulcers or falls. The latest nurse staffing levels data, which relates to August this year, details the planned versus actual staffing levels for all inpatient wards.
JOHN HOULIHAN
By Kat Keogh
Susan Osborne of the Safe Staffing Alliance says the safety indicators website is a tick-box exercise
It shows that 239 hospitals either met or exceeded their planned levels, while 44 hospitals were operating at 90 per cent capacity or below. Safe Staffing Alliance chair Susan Osborne said the alliance had been contacted by staff working in hospitals where one nurse was expected to care for 14 patients. ‘Some trusts have the right staffing levels, but a worrying amount do not,’ she said. Ms Osborne warned the data could be ‘meaningless’ to the public because it does not indicate how many patients nurses in each hospital were having to care for.
‘While nurses are overstretched as it is, this is a tick-box exercise, and has not stopped unsafe staffing levels.’ From next spring, the safety indicator will include more detail, with hospitals given a green, red or amber ‘traffic light’ rating for nurse numbers. It will measure not only the number of staff on duty, but staff absences and use of agency nurses. A spokesperson for NHS England, which collates the data, said although staffing levels could temporarily be down in wards that are currently recruiting, it would expect trusts to give a full explanation on their website.
Regulators to encourage a more transparent health service Nurses and midwives have a duty to be open and honest with patients and own up to mistakes, according to new draft guidance from the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Last month, the NMC and the General Medical Council were among nine professional healthcare regulators to sign up to a joint statement setting out their commitment to a duty of candour. The move follows Sir Robert Francis’s call for a more open and transparent
culture in the NHS following the Mid Staffordshire care scandal. The draft guidance states that staff must tell patients or their families when something has gone wrong. They should apologise and offer an appropriate remedy or support to put matters right. It also calls on employers to support staff by maintaining an open workplace culture where people can learn from mistakes. RCN general secretary Peter Carter said: ‘In too many organisations there has
been a culture of blame, fear and secrecy, which makes it hard for staff to admit when things have gone wrong.’ He added that employers must lead by example and ensure their organisation has an open culture. A consultation is open until January 5, and the guidance is expected to be published in March. To take part in the consultation, go to www.nmc-uk.org/ candour-consultation
NURSING november :: vol 29without no 10 permission. :: 2014 7 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 24, 2015. For personal use only. No 5 other uses Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
