NHS staff 'working on edge of safety'

[Northerner]

NHS staff in England are working on the "edge of safety" as rising demand is outstripping the increasing numbers being employed, health bosses say.

There are now 6% more staff than there were three years ago, but demand for services has risen by three times as much in some areas.

NHS Providers, which represents health chiefs, said staff shortages was now the number one concern in the NHS.

But ministers insisted there were plans in place to tackle the problem.

Over the past year, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced rises in the number of training places for both doctors and nurses.

The Department of Health said this represented the "biggest ever expansion of training places" and would help ensure the NHS had the staff it needed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41892336

Bring back bursaries! And at a level people can survive on! All well and good having training places, but they're no good if you can't fill them with actual people And doctors take years to train - what are they doing about the situation now? 😡

 

[Ljc]

Hear hear

Bring back bursaries! And at a level people can survive on! All well and good having training places, but they're no good if you can't fill them with actual people And doctors take years to train - what are they doing about the situation now? 😡

Hear hear hear hear , Alan.
I trust J H as far as I can throw him.

 

[mikeyB]

Yes, same applies up here. The main problem is in GPs so government says more training places. That’s at least 3 years on top of 1 or 2 years in hospital after graduating. Quick fix? Aye, right

 

[Northerner]

Yes, same applies up here. The main problem is in GPs so government says more training places. That’s at least 3 years on top of 1 or 2 years in hospital after graduating. Quick fix? Aye, right

What annoys me most about the situation we are now in is that they've known for years that demand would increase because of the ageing, and increasing population - government's job is to plan accordingly. It's not a surprise. All we have seen over the past few years is fewer resources being given to more and more patients

 

[trophywench]

Well - hearing that ruddy conversation between the staff nurse on 'my' ward as an in-patient, with whoever was telling her they needed the ward to take 2 more patients one night and her refusing because they already had 50% more patients than is considered by the NHS as 'safe' - was still a bit of an eye-opener although not actually unknown to me, IYSWIM.

I felt that blooming GUILTY at taking up a bed when I wasn't actually 'ill' - very very depressing so if I had been 'ill' I can't see how it could have helped me recover. And I can't think I'm that different to most folk, in how it made me feel.

 

[Amigo]

Well - hearing that ruddy conversation between the staff nurse on 'my' ward as an in-patient, with whoever was telling her they needed the ward to take 2 more patients one night and her refusing because they already had 50% more patients than is considered by the NHS as 'safe' - was still a bit of an eye-opener although not actually unknown to me, IYSWIM.

I felt that blooming GUILTY at taking up a bed when I wasn't actually 'ill' - very very depressing so if I had been 'ill' I can't see how it could have helped me recover. And I can't think I'm that different to most folk, in how it made me feel.

It happened to me too Jenny and I had serious pneumonia. The porter took me to a Ward and without even looking down at me in the wheelchair, the nurse said, ‘she can’t come here, we’re full!’. He then spent 10 mins ringing round trying to find me a bed. It was shocking and I was supposed to be on oxygen, not being wheeled round a hospital like a bag of refuge!

 

[trophywench]

I swear Amigo if you'd died, it wouldn't be anyone's actual fault - they'd just apologise to your nearest and dearest and nobody would be supposed to bat a damned eyelid.

 

[Amigo]

I swear Amigo if you'd died, it wouldn't be anyone's actual fault - they'd just apologise to your nearest and dearest and nobody would be supposed to bat a damned eyelid.

Yes true enough Jenny!

 

[Northerner]

Well, I haven't been in hospital since diagnosis in 2008, but even back then I do remember how much respect I had for the bed manager who was constantly trying to get people into the appropriate place. I was in 7 different beds in 8 days! 😱 The thing is though, I felt right as rain after they gave me insulin and could probably have left after a day or two, but unfortunately they decided I had had a heart attack and wanted to do an angiogram - that led to me lying around on the cardiac care ward, then another side ward for an extra next 5 days. I was fine, yet they wouldn't even let me go to the loo on my own! I hadn't had a heart attack, just some minor inflammation, as it turned out, probably caused by the virus I had contracted that put me in hospital. Goodness knows what would have happened nowadays 😱

 

[Ralph-YK]

Well - hearing that ruddy conversation between the staff nurse on 'my' ward as an in-patient, with whoever was telling her they needed the ward to take 2 more patients one night and her refusing because

When I was in hospital for 3 weeks (3 years dianversery in December) I hears that sort of conversation all the time at night. Repeatedly on some nights. Person on ward would be saying how people haven't been moved from there cause there wasn't room elsewhere yet. So those waiting couldn't come onto this ward.
People kept getting moved from one ward to another, and from rooms (?bays??) to another. At 2am.
Fun part was all the clocks in the rooms had different times and dates on them. Staff would come round and ask if you knew what time of day it was, or which day of the week!

 

[trophywench]

Mobile phones are useful for that LOL - Glucometers only tell me the date, not the day!