PATIENTS’ SAFETY ‘AT RISK’
HOSPITAL CHIEFS SLATED OVER RISE IN NUMBER OF SICK EACH NURSE HAS TO LOOK AFTER
NURSES at Bristol’s biggest hospital have condemned hospital chiefs, claiming they are putting patients’ safety at risk by increasing the number of patients each nurse has to look after.
Nursing ratios at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and other hospitals in the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston trust had been set at a maximum of one nurse for every six patients during the day, and one nurse for every eight patients at night.
Now, hospital bosses have put posters up throughout the in-patient wards increasing that ratio to one-toten during the day and one-to-12 at night.
The UHBW trust is grappling with increasing numbers of patients with coronavirus, and reduced staffing levels as nurses themselves go off sick with the virus, or are self-isolating.
Hospital bosses said the decision was taken only in ‘some areas where it is safe and appropriate to do so’, and to help manage increasing demand.
The most recent figures on staff sickness at the trust showed that 212 staff members were absent due to coronavirus on November 4 – almost 40 per cent of the 552 overall absences that day.
And yesterday the number of people in hospital with coronavirus at the Bristol Royal Infirmary also rose to levels above the worst days of the first wave of the pandemic.
The most recent figures, for November 10, saw 89 patients with
Covid-19 in beds at the UHBW trust, which includes the BRI and Weston General Hospital. That had almost doubled from 45 a week earlier.
Two days later, on November 12, the UHBW trust implemented the new staffing ratios, which have now been condemned by nurses at the trust.
The staffing group NHS Workers Say No Bristol, which organised a massive protest march in support of NHS staff’s pay claim in the summer, called on hospital bosses to reverse the order.
They said staff at the hospital were informed of the change by seeing posters up around the wards, and not through any consultation with nursing staff or unions.
The group said it was ‘not safe for patients’ to have staff looking after more than eight non-critical patients at a time, a figure which is double the
amount of patients nurses would have had ten years ago.
“This news is all-too daunting for NHS workers in Bristol,” a spokesperson for the group said. “The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) provides guidance for health and social care and informs evidence-based practice.
“They have stated that evidence has shown that a nursing-to-patient ratio of more than 1:8 leaves patients at an increased risk of harm,” she added.
The group of NHS staff said hospital bosses are not allowed to implement a blanket policy for nursing ratios, something which is contested by hospital bosses.
“We understand that this is a hard time for the NHS,” said a spokesperson for the staffing group.
“However, if NHS Trusts are going to increase our workload in an unprecedented way, we would expect a significant pay rise to accompany this for all NHS workers.”
Hospital bosses at the UHBW trust said that it was not a blanket policy, and said that the hospital was facing a critical time.
Carolyn Mills, the chief nurse at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is not a blanket change to nurse to patient ratios in our hospital but a clinically-led decision we have taken in some areas where it is safe and appropriate to do so and to help us manage the increasing demand for our services during this global pandemic.
“These decisions are under constant review based on clinical and staffing needs on shift-by-shift basis while senior clinicians are also on hand to offer wellbeing support and care to colleagues if required.”