RUH ‘providing good care despite staffing shortage’

A snap inspection of the Royal United Hospital has highlighted staffing shortages which are impacting care at the wards visited.

This comes as analysis by the Nuffield Trust shows that £3.3 billion in NHS funding promised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the autumn statement will be largely eaten up by inflation and energy prices leaving just £795m for improving services next year.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an unannounced focused inspection in Bath on August 22 because it had received information “causing concerns about the safety and quality” of the medicine core service.

At the inspection, the CQC inspected three wards for the elderly: Cheseldon, Midford and Waterhouse. In total, the RUH has 12 inpatient wards with 381 beds.

Overall the report was good, and the CQC were clear that staff managed to keep people safe, however staffing levels were clearly not up to the levels planned for and this did have consequences.

“The service had enough staff to care for patients and keep them safe but planned staffing levels were rarely met for the wards we visited,” stated the report on an early page.

“Staff could not always respond in a timely way to patient call bells due to staffing challenges,” the report went on. “Equipment was not always serviced or stored in line with guidelines. Some wards did not consistently complete daily checks of emergency equipment.”

Beyond this, however, the report stressed that RUH staff worked well together for the benefit of patients.

“Staff treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions,” it said. “They provided emotional support to patients, families, and carers.”

Catherine Campbell, CQC head of hospital inspection, said: “Our inspectors found that staff on the front line were doing their utmost to provide safe and effective care and treatment of patients.

“This was despite additional pressures in departments where there was a shortfall in the number of permanent staff available.

“The trust did, however, make sure that in those wards where extra staff were needed, bank or agency staff were used after having a comprehensive induction.”

In response, a representative of the Royal United Hospitals NHS Trust told us that the reasons that wards do not always meet planned staffing levels can include staff sickness, vacancies, booked leave or training, and that the trust also supports its ward teams with bank and agency nursing workers when needed.

“We are pleased that the CQC recognised that we have enough staff to care for our patients and keep them safe,” said the spokesperson.

“We are committed to ensuring our wards are fully staffed, and we have recruited 75 full-time equivalent nursing staff in just the last month.

“Our overall staff numbers continue to steadily increase,” they said.