Health bosses ‘disappointed’ after media approached over shortages
Health bosses were said to have expressed “disappointment” that whistleblowers contacted the media to claim their bosses had tried to cover up the true impact staff shortages were having on care for patients at PRI.
NHS Tayside non-executive board member Linda Dunion told a meeting of Perth and Kinross’ integration joint board on Friday that she and other non-executive members of the board had received a “full briefing” about the situation at PRI on Thursday.
She said “disappointment” was expressed at that meeting that whistleblowers had chosen to approach the media to highlight their concerns about standards of care rather than report them through internal processes.
Ms Dunion also said that members had sought “reassurances” at the meeting that PRI staff were being reminded to go through official channels to raise any concerns they might have. She did, however, say that the allegations in the letter were being taken “very seriously”.
Prior to Ms Dunion’s comments NHS Tayside associate nurse director Jim Foulis said staff at PRI had been asked if they felt under pressure prior to the contents of the letter becoming public at the end of last week.
Mr Foulis stated that while some staff said they did not recognise the claims being made in the letter and had found certain allegations “distressing” and “upsetting” a number of staff did say some of the contents of the letter could be seen as being accurate.
He conceded NHS Tayside has faced “major challenges” when trying to recruit registered nurses to work at PRI and confirmed that the number of beds on three wards has been reduced as part of recently introduced “contingency”plans to cope with the lack of staff.
Mr Foulis went on to reveal that NHS Tayside had recently written to around 400 former employees asking them to consider coming back to work on wards.
He added that extra support staff and managers were being put on PRI wards throughout the weekend to assist nurses and assess the situation.