Nurses forced to cook meals for patients in staffing crisis

NURSES have been forced to prepare meals for patients after crippling staff shortages left a hospital without any kitchen staff.

NHS bosses admitted an ‘extreme staffing shortage’ had given nurses no option but to cook meals on top of their day-to-day duties at Portree Hospital on the Isle of Skye.

Nurses had to step in after three catering workers at the island’s Dr MacKinnon Memorial Hospital in Broadford went on sick leave and their counterparts from Portree were moved to cover their absences.

Nurses ‘agreed to do the cooking’ as a temporary measure while alternative catering arrangements are made.

Yesterday, nursing union chiefs said the arrangement was ‘not ideal’ but said they had been given assurances by the health board that new catering staff would be found soon.

Bob McGlashan, senior officer at the Royal College of Nursing, said: ‘The board has acknowledged that they have had significant sickness absence and recruitment challenges in the catering department and that some nursing staff agreed to provide support by heating meals for patients.

‘While this is not ideal and nursing staff should be focusing on providing clinical care for patients, we understand these steps have been taken to allow inpatients to continue to be cared for within Portree Hospital.

‘The health board has explored alternative catering arrangements and has given assurances that recruitment of catering staff is progressing and that this is a short-term solution.’

Last month, NHS Highland suspended new admissions to Portree Hospital due to staff shortages, then this week its out-of-hours service was temporarily closed. Local councillor Ronald MacDonald said he believed the shortages were linked to plans to move Skye’s main hospital from Portree to Broadford.

He added: ‘This has come about around the main holiday period and there doesn’t seem to have been any forward planning. It looks like they’re just letting the place run down.

‘Portree is the major population centre on Skye and if there is a major incident it will be difficult to cope.’ There are 12 beds at Portree Hospital but only seven are in use due to staff shortages.

The health board said it was striving to resolve the staffing crisis through measures such as increasing the grading of posts and offering generous training packages, but added that many of those it had trained in the past had subsequently left.

NHS Highland said: ‘We have an extreme staffing shortage currently between the two hospital sites, catering being one of these.

‘As a result of this we have had to temporarily move staff to cover MacKinnon catering, as we have more patients there, and due to the few patients we have in Portree the nursing staff have been asked to support this situation.

‘The staff have agreed to do the cooking as there are so few patients and it is not full meal preparation, simply reheating and serving.’

Highland Council leader Margaret Davidson is set to raise her concerns about hospital services on Skye at a meeting with Health Secretary Shona Robison next week.

‘They’re letting the place run down’