Ten complaints a day about NHS: from staff

Workers’ grievances as fears grow over patient care

HOSPITAL workers are making ten complaints every day about staff shortages facing the NHS.

Fears have been raised that patient safety could be at risk after new figures exposed the scale of the staffing crisis facing NHS boards.

In the past two years, doctors, nurses and other NHS staff have made 7,253 formal complaints about shortages on hospital wards to senior management.

While hard-working doctors and nurses struggle to cover for the shortages, staff have warned that the crisis is starting to affect patient safety.

And 127 patients and families have been so concerned about staffing that they have submitted formal complaints to hospital chiefs.

Jim Hume, health spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: ‘These stark figures underline the pressure that NHS staff are under as a result of the failure of the SNP Government to get to grips with the challenges facing our health service.

‘NHS staff work incredibly hard to keep us healthy but they are simply not getting the support they need from Ministers. Whether we are talking about the crisis in primary care and GP recruitment or high numbers of vacancies for hospital consultants, it seems there is no part of our NHS that is not struggling to get the necessary number of staff in the right jobs.

‘These figures show that NHS staff are constantly being asked to do more with less. There comes a point when this is simply not sustainable and that moment has now passed.’

The figures, compiled by the Lib Dems for The Scottish Mail on Sunday, show that staff made 3,805 complaints about staffing levels in 2013-14, followed by a further 3,448 in 2014-15.

Staff at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde made 2,050 complaints over the two-year period – more than any other health board area – while staff in NHS Grampian raised concerns on 1,406 occasions.

The figures come after it emerged that consultant doctor vacancies have trebled over the past four years.

Many health boards are struggling to fill vacancies, while accident and emergency waiting times have been under growing pressure.

Norman Provan, employment rela- tions director for the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, said: ‘The situation is unsustainable. It’s frustrating and demoralising for nurses who are working flat out yet still feeling unable to provide the care they would like to because of ever-increasing demands on their time, and it’s unacceptable for patients. The last NHS staff survey showed that only a quarter of nursing and midwifery staff feel there are enough staff to do their job properly.

‘It is essential that staff are encouraged to report concerns over staffing levels, and are listened to.

‘More must be done to ensure that we have adequate numbers of staff, equipped with the right skills, to provide the increasingly complex care which patients need.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Our health service has vastly improved over the past decade with record funding and record staffing levels now in place. Under this Government, NHS Scotland has over 10,500 more staff, including over 2,300 more qualified nurses and midwives and over 2,000 more doctors. An increased investment in frontline NHS resource for this year will also bring the health budget for Scotland to more than £12 billion for the first time.

‘Projections for 2015-16 show that more than 1,000 extra NHS staff are expected to be recruited this years.’

‘Demoralising for nurses who are working flat out’