19.11.13
Hospitals to publish ward by ward staffing levels
The Department of Health is to publish its official response to the Francis Inquiry today, including a new requirement for hospitals to publish details of their staffing numbers.
There will not be a national minimum ratio for staff to patients, instead each hospital trust will have to make a ward-by-ward decision based on the evidence and what is right in each case. Data will be published monthly from next April and hospital boards will be required to publicly review the data twice a year.
The Safe Staffing Alliance has called for a minimum ratio of one nurse to eight patients, but the Chief Nursing Officer Jane Cummings said the evidence suggested different levels are required on different wards.
She said: “We have very clear evidence of a link between appropriate staffing and the outcomes of our patients. Patients and the public are therefore entitled to know that we have the right number of people in place to provide safe, quality care every time.”
The Francis review put forward 290 recommendations, the majority of which are expected to be accepted – but there is no sign that the government is prepared to accept more regulation and registration of healthcare assistants.
Other actions include creating a new crime of ‘wilful neglect’ for nurses and doctors.
Dr Peter Carter, chief executive & general secretary of the RCN, welcomed the focus on staffing levels and said: “Greater transparency on staffing levels on every ward will encourage trusts to examine and assess whether they have a safe level of staff. This should be backed up with the mandatory use of evidence based safe staffing tools, so that ward sisters and their managers know what level of staff they need on each ward based on their patients’ needs.
“It is also important that trusts are able to take action if their staffing levels fall below this number. We would like to see an immediate boost to nursing numbers as part of a longer-term approach to workforce planning with increased nurse training places so that trusts are able to recruit more nurses when they need to without having to rely on overseas workforces.”
On healthcare support workers, Dr Carter called for “concrete progress” on training and regulation.
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: “We have repeatedly warned the government about nurse numbers falling to dangerous levels. This new focus on recruitment is overdue but it shouldn't have taken this long and it won't be enough to repair the damage of three years of falling nurse numbers on David Cameron's watch.”
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