Nurses blow whistle on staff shortage ‘cover-up’

PRI: Hospital bosses deny claims that they tried to hide true scale of the crisis

Health bosses have moved to reassure patients after whistle-blowing nurses claimed it is only a matter of time before staffing shortages at PRI result in a death.

Management at Perth Royal Infirmary met health care professionals after claims emerged that the true scale of the staffing crisis was being covered up.

A group of senior staff nurses contacted The Courier to say: “Working conditions are atrocious. The stark reality is that care is inadequate, unsafe and at times dangerous to the point that it is only a matter of time before a patient is fatally harmed.”

Meanwhile, RCN senior officer Bob McGlashan said: “Staffing is a big issue...the hospital and the staff who work there are under pressure like never before.”

NHS Tayside yesterday moved to reassure patients and refuted the whistle-blowers’ claims.

Whistleblowers have accused health bosses of covering up the true scale of staff shortages at Perth Royal Infirmary.

Health care providers at the 270-bed site fear it is only a matter of time before the situation leads to a patient death.

In a letter to The Courier, a group of senior staff nurses – who do not wish to be identified – slammed claims by Dr Alan Cook, NHS Tayside’s medical director for the operational unit, that patients are being cared for in the safest environments following the introduction of “interim contingency measures”.

The hospital has been forced to merge wards and cancel surgical procedures due to a lack of staff.

The nurses, backed by the Royal College of Nurses (RCN), stressed they are striving to maintain professionalism but said: “Working conditions are atrocious. We do not have a magic wand but we are so angry that managers continue to cover up the true picture of the reality on these wards.

“The stark reality is that care is inadequate, unsafe and at times dangerous, to the point that it is only a matter of time before a patient is fatally harmed.”

Issues raised by the group include qualified but inexperienced staff being left in charge of wards, staff from unrelated specialisms being drafted in to provide cover, patients being given beds in other wards and drugs being given later than scheduled due to lack of staff.

RCN senior officer Bob McGlashan said: “Staffing is a big issue. There is a shortage of nursing staff across Scotland and the reality in many areas, including at Perth Royal Infirmary, is that nurses want to do their very best for their patients, but rising demands on our health and care services and a shortage of nursing staff mean that the hospital and the staff who work there are under pressure like never before.”

But the clinical lead for medicine at Perth Royal Infirmary, Dr John Harper, said: “As a frontline clinician, I spend my working life on Wards 3 and 6 at PRI directly delivering care and, therefore, I feel I am well placed to share the reality of the day-to-day workings of the hospital.

“Firstly, I would like to absolutely reassure our patients that we are providing safe, high-quality care here at PRI.

“It would be fair to say that these are challenging times for everyone working in hospitals in terms of the demands on our services and the increasingly complex patients that we care for, not just in PRI or in Tayside hospitals, but across the country. However, the claims in the letter relating to patient safety simply do not reflect the high standards of care which the ward teams, both doctors and nurses, deliver every day here at PRI.”

The stark reality is that care is inadequate, unsafe and at times dangerous, to the point that it is only a matter of time before a patient is fatally harmed