20.04.15
New safe staffing indicator for English trusts to launch this summer
A new nursing safer staffing indicator for hospitals in England is set to be launched this summer on the NHS Choices website.
The new composite indicator will give trusts a Red, Amber or Green rating based on a range of data, including staff sickness rate, the proportion of mandatory training completed, completion of a performance development review, staff views on staffing and patient views on staffing.
Most of the data to be used for the indicator is already available via the national staff and patient surveys and the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
A new recommended twice yearly assessment of the amount of time nurses spend giving direct care to patients will sit alongside the new indicator.
The development of the indicator is part of the safer staffing focus since the publication of the Francis report into poor care at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust in 2013.
News of the indicator was revealed in a letter sent from England’s chief nursing officer, Jane Cummings, to the chief executives and nursing directors of trusts in England.
The letter says: “These indicators will support the patient safety information already published on NHS Choices and provide comparable information for trusts to use and for patients and service users to enable them to make an informed choice of care provider. It will also be used by the regulatory bodies as part of their trust assurance process.”
Trusts will receive a summary spreadsheet showing initial safer staffing performance data this week, however the contents is considered strictly confidential until it is published on NHS Choices later this year.
An NHS England spokeswoman said: “Hospital nurse staffing levels have been rising dramatically and every trust in England is now required to publish staffing levels at ward level.
“From the summer, patients and the public will have access to more information on safe staffing at hospitals as we will publish nurse staffing indicators and an overall rating on their safe staffing performance.”
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