When a team of experienced clinicians, patients, and health managers visited the Vic as part of the overall review, they found low staff levels were being blamed for poor quality of care.Although the subsequent report highlighted there was a high level of ‘commitment and compassion’ displayed by frontline staff during the visit, indeed praising some areas of the hospital and its effective board structure”, the review team also came across worrying examples of poor quality of care.these included: • Patients’ families having to help feed other patients and some patients left in soiled conditions due to lack of staff. • Concerns over out-of-hours cover were raised, with one example describing a locum doctor – who has since been removed from on-call duties – being unable to manage a cardiac arrest in the high dependency unit. The nurse in charge of the intensive care unit (who also covered HDU) refused to attend the cardiac arrest and sent another staff nurse. It was also found some nurse shift leaders in ICU were not trained in advanced life support and had shown resistance to training. In the Escalation, or temporary, ward set up to deal with high numbers of patients, the visiting panel found “inadequate” staffing levels for a ward with a great many “acutely unwell” patients. The report stated: “Staff are pulled from other wards within their divisions to work on the escalation ward and also on other wards. “One nurse described being moved three times in the course of one night shift to different areas and that movement of nursing staff from area to area is an everyday occurrence.” • The review team also discovered nursing staff spending too much time on paper-work. • The stroke ward was highlighted because its layout makes it difficult to observe patients with the current level of staff and there is no dedicated stroke consultant over the weekend. • In orthopaedics, one junior doctor reported seeing patients for four days in a week without advice from a senior colleague. • And in the geriatric medicine ward staffing levels were deemed to be inappropriate. On 11 out of 17 days in May at least one member of staff was absent through illness.The review team said the trust needed to ensure that while recruitment of more staff is underway the current staffing levels on the wards and departments listed are safe, particularly out of hours. The report said: “During focus groups and ward observations the panel learned of insufficient staffing levels and staffing mix on a number of wards.“The trust should improve capacity through the implementation of a robust retention and recruitment policy.”In response, the trust said it has already increased out of hours agency support for unscheduled care and will increase staff levels elsewhere in by October. There are plans in place, the reports adds, to recruit 35 new consultants with 10 already having been appointed.The use of locum, or temporary consultants, had caused “resentment” among some of the full-time staff due to the fact they are brought in and paid higher rates.This, the report added “presents long-term recruitment/retention” risk.The hospital trust is also recruiting from universities and from other countries such as Portugal and Ireland in a bid to plug the gaps
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 10:43:00 +0000
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