Make safety concerns information public

The Royal College of Nursing is calling for information on concerns about patient safety raised by staff in the NHS to be made public.

The RCN says that NHS trusts should be compelled to hold a register of staff concerns and is urging trust boards to prioritise patient safety and hold regular board-level reviews of staff concerns.

The RCN has revealed that nursing staff have been contacting the organisation to raise serious concerns each week for the past year.

RCN chief executive & general secretary Dr Peter Carter says: “It is deeply worrying that not a week goes by without a nurse calling in with serious concerns. It is a sad indictment of the pressure nurses find themselves under that any nurse says they have insufficient time available to complete work safely.

“Coupled with concerns over financially-driven decisions, it is more important than ever for patient safety that staff concerns are acted on promptly. To drive up standards we believe that boards should hold a register of concerns and that these must be made available to the public.”

The RCN launched its Raising concerns, raising standards hotline last year to help nursing staff with fears about patient care in their trusts.

Dr Carter adds: “We launched our hotline to make sure that staff could raise concerns they had without fear of victimisation and with the confidence they would be acted on. The fact is we should never have needed to do this - all health care staff should be confident that their concerns over failures in patient care will be heard. This is why we are calling for politicians to stand up for staff who speak out.”