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Another day on the ward at a UK hospital. More than 1,000 NHS staff in the Observer and Guardian healthcare network have taken part in a survey which reveals the extent of grave concern over current staffing shortages.
More than 1,000 NHS employees took part in a survey that reveals the extent of concern over staffing shortages. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
More than 1,000 NHS employees took part in a survey that reveals the extent of concern over staffing shortages. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Patient safety hit by lack of staff, warn 80% of NHS workers

This article is more than 6 years old

Survey reveals deep concern among health professionals over shortages in key areas

A huge majority of NHS workers say they are worried about staffing levels, according to new survey findings that suggest a dangerous level of under-resourcing in the health service.

Four-fifths (80%) of respondents – which included nurses, doctors and managers – have raised concerns about there not being enough staff on duty to give patients safe and high-quality care. More than half of those (59%) said no action was taken, despite their unease being voiced.

More than 1,000 NHS staff who belong to the Observer and Guardian’s healthcare network were surveyed. Almost half of respondents (48%) said care had been compromised on their last shift, while only 2% felt there were always enough people to provide safe care. More than half (53%) say they cannot provide the level of care they want to.

One junior doctor said: “The youngest doctors in the hospital are given dangerous levels of responsibility; there is one newly qualified junior doctor to 400 patients on night shifts. The administration is in agreement, but confess there is not enough money to employ extra staff.”

The findings come at a time of escalating pressure on the health service. The winter crisis that hit in January was described as the worst ever. Nursing vacancy figures are at their highest level since records began – the number of unfilled advertised nursing and midwifery posts in England reached 34,260 in September. The regulator NHS Improvement admitted recently that the NHS in England is short of 100,000 staff – one in 11 of the entire workforce.

One senior nurse, who works in a large A&E department in the north of England, told how she has to regularly manage over double the number of patients the department has capacity for. “I have seen clinical errors increase and staff blamed for them with little appreciation of the overwhelming pressure,” she said. “Basic care is consistently compromised. People are left in pain so that others can receive life-saving treatment.”

She added that it was impossible to provide adequate care while patients had to lie on trolleys in corridors and that the trust regularly fiddled with performance data to make it appear that people had waited less time for treatment than in reality, in order to meet NHS targets.

One midwife added: “On average, every other shift is short staffed. We are normally two midwives down when this happens, or on particularly bad shifts, there is only one senior midwife when there should be at least two. We are then allocated multiple patients, or are pressured to transfer patients more quickly than we would like.”

The self-selecting survey was answered by healthcare professionals with a range of roles – nurses, doctors, paramedics and hospital managers among others. It was conducted in the weeks immediately after the health service’s stressful start to the new year.

The Royal College of Nursing has warned of demands on healthcare staff. “The vast majority of frontline nurses are crying out but far too little changes. When so many say they cannot do their job properly due to understaffing, ministers and the NHS must listen,” said Janet Davies, the union’s chief executive.

The survey findings also show that:

  • 75% ranked safe staffing levels as the first or second most pressing problem facing the health service.
  • 77% had considered leaving their job in the NHS.
  • 76% often or always work beyond their contracted hours and 75% skip breaks.
  • 67% said there was a shortfall in planned staffing in their department when they last went in to work.

It’s not just those in hospitals that are affected. One health visitor who works in community services wrote: “I share a caseload of 1,000 children. I am contracted for 25 hours a week, and my colleague 37.5 hours. It’s not possible to give any sort of quality service.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “We have record numbers of staff in the NHS, but there is more to do. We announced the biggest increase in training places for doctors and nurses in NHS history.”

Davies added: “Safe staffing levels are crucial. Patients can pay the highest price when levels fall too low.”

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