SENIOR nurses have issued a warning about unsafe staffing levels on hospital wards in England.
The Safe Staffing Alliance, which includes the Royal College of Nursing, Unison and the Patients Association, says safe nursing levels have been ignored for too long.
The Alliance, which also includes a number of directors of nursing at English hospitals, was formed last summer.
It says the one nurse to eight patients ratio should not be regarded as a minimum acceptable level of staffing.
Quoting a survey of nurses at 31 English hospitals, the alliance said that wards were run with the one to eight ratio about 40% of the time.
A Safe Staffing Alliance statement said: ‘For the sake of clarity, more than eight patients per registered nurse is the level considered to be unsafe and putting patients at risk.
‘It is not a recommended minimum.
‘For nurses to provide compassionate care which treats patients with dignity and respect, higher levels will be needed and these should be determined by every health care provider.’
The Alliance added that the research has shown the risk of harm and death increases if a nurse is asked to look after more than eight patients.
It is calling for any instances where nurses have to look after more than that number of patients to be publicly recorded and investigated.
The government said hospitals were responsible for their own staffing.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said the Care Quality Commission had cited staffing levels as a key issue for patients.
She said: ‘Patients said they thought all staff, and in particular nurses, were overworked.
‘A frequent comment was that staff were caring but that they “did not have enough time for you”.
‘The fact is without adequate staffing levels, overstretched nurses are not able to give patients the care they need.’
Elizabeth Rob, the chief executive of the Florence Nightingale Foundation, which is also part of the Alliance, said adequate staffing was vital.
She called for inspection teams to go into hospitals and report their findings.
Robb will lead an Alliance delegation to meet health minister Dan Poulter, who says that the government is no longer responsible for the running of the NHS.
Poulter said yesterday: ‘It is for hospitals themselves to decide how many nurses they employ, and they are best placed to do this.
‘Nursing leaders have been clear that hospitals should publish staffing details and the evidence to show that staff numbers are right for the care needs of the patients that they look after.’
Poulter said the soon-to-be-appointed chief inspector of hospitals would be tasked with taking action if hospitals were found to be compromising patient care by not having the right number of staff on wards.
It is clear that the governent policy of making £20bn of NHS cuts has plunged the NHS into an acute crisis, that can only be ended by removing the government and by putting an end to the cuts and privatisation drive.
