As suspected the new hospitals don’t have enough staff to operate
them according to the body responsible for training new nurses??
Who’s fault is this??
They have had over a year to engage and give basic training to new
recruits, so why the deficit?
Do we to have an enquiry to get anything done?
Donkeyman!Surely, there are lots of people out of work now in the hospitality industry, or people being furloughed, can’t these be enlisted into the cooking, cleaning, and maintenance of the Nightingales? What are all the hotel cleaners doing now and local staff from the cruise ships?
I don’t think I’d like someone unqualified in charge of an ITU bed. It’s a specialist job. Even the unqualified vaccinators must have supervision from a clinician on site for safety reasons. So at the moment the vaccination efforts will also be putting pressure on staffing resources.
I wasn’t suggesting that a hotel cleaner would be administering any kind of medical assistance Annie, but a fully functioning hospital is a sum of all it’s parts, not just medically trained staff. If you’re going to die in a hospital bed, at least it would be nice to have someone bring you a last cup of tea…Or does someone need a degree to do that?
By the way things are going, it’s either that, or die in a draughty corridor…
I don’t think they are short of ancillary staff OGF.
English NHS still short of more than 36,000 nurses
26 NOVEMBER, 2020
Published today, figures from NHS Digital showed that in the second quarter of 2020-21, 10% of full-time equivalent (FTE) registered nurse posts were vacant.
This meant NHS England was now 36,655 nurses short, which when broken down included a gap of 9,541 mental health nurses and 16,951 acute nurses.
The statistics showed the number of nurse vacancies had reduced by 1.4% since June 2020 and by more than 15% since this time last year.
The statistics show that London was experiencing the highest vacancy rates with 9,171 nurse gaps, while the Midlands was short by 7,484 and the South East by 5,414.
In addition, the North East and Yorkshire were short of 4,969 nurses, whilst the East had 3,105 vacancies and the South West had 2,032.
No “spare” nurses for the Nightingales, then … 
No big surprise.
The rot set in when nursing became a degree course.
I’m all in favour of degree courses for higher levels of nursing: specialisms and supervisory positions.
The majority of nursing duties: looking after ill patients including basic nursing duties like taking temperatures, dressing wounds, etc. should not need a degree.
Both my mother and Marge’s mother were SENs in the good old days. There were, in addition, more highly qualified SRNs (still no degrees) for more specialist types of nursing. Every ward was in the charge of a senior SRN with, of course, full nursing qualifications, and the whole hospital’s nursing staff under the ultimate control of a matron, compared to what we have today: a virtual army of ‘nursing officers’ complete with an even larger army of clinically non-qualified pen-pushers.
Things ran like clockwork then and, no doubt, with far less need for paperwork and meetings.
During the first lockdown didn’t they bring in trainee nurses from their university studies to help out? Why can’t they do the same again in the ICU wards to release a number of well-trained nurses for the Nightingales? And then there are the Armed Forces medical staff. What about releasing some of them to help out?
Hi
ICU Nurses take an age to train.
Ward cleaners, Catering Staff are contracted out in many NHS Trusts, and yes there are shortages.
There certainly were in Stoke over Christmas.
Lots of Covid Patients coming in, not many deaths, but the new variant is affecting more younger people who need specialist beds for some time.
It is a complex treatment, loads of blood tests for the lab, loads of medication from the Pharmacy. delays all round.
In order to reduce infections, you stay ia assessment until the results of your Covid Test
I understand ICU nurses take ages to train, Swimmy, BUT surely 1 or 2/ward/shift could be replaced by other nurses/student nurses to allow the fully trained ones to go to the Nightingales? The same goes for the doctors.
Hi
I can only speak as I find Percy.
I was in a Regional Critical Care Centre, Major Trauma Unit.
It is like Star Trek with all the machines and screens and staff.
They had reached their limits, they were having to open more Covid Wards, which to reduce transmission have less beds and more staff.
On the Coronary wards you did not get your morning or afternoon drink at times, cleaning staff had been moved to the Covid wards, so one cleaner for 4 patients.
I am not saying that you are wrong, just explaining what is happening.
As far as the Military are concerned they have been cut significantly.
There are 5,000 already working for the NHS.
My Specialist PTSD Nurse is still a Reservist. he has been called back in already.
Of course, and as I’ve said before there are ways.
There’s a huge number of qualified staff working in other areas, recently-retired or otherwise inactive too.
But publicising anything that be even vaguely positive goes against what our media stand for nowadays.
Here’s proof of our media’s deliberate misinterpretation and “spin”, from just September:
“According to NHS Digital, the number of nurses in the English NHS has increased by 13,840 compared to last year and the number of doctors has risen by 9,306.”
That’s so brilliant. Thanks for posting the link Zaphod. It’s such a positive article that it’s no wonder our media haven’t said a word about it.
Hi
Not the best link to prove your view.
I was very lucky, got in just as the rush was building up.
12 hours later I would have been waiting in an ambulance outside, or to put it bluntly, dead.
I was incredibly lucky and incredibly grateful.
The boss, the Professor who treated me a few weeks previously came in in his own time, saw me and I was on for a proceedure which saved my life.
Er … proof that there ARE more nurses AND more doctors from a professional body doesn’t “prove my view”?
Are you having a “specsavers” moment?
Hi
Nope.
I can addup and the NHS is in a mess now in some parts of the UK.
Your calculator definitely needs new batteries if your “addup[sic]” is trying to disagree with official figures but instead think our media are correct.
A serious question: can you remember a time when some parts of the NHS have not been “in a mess”?
Because the NHS has been the same in that regard since inception.
Also consider the ancient maxim “seek and ye shall find”.
Try for once if you can to look at UK current affairs with the same positivity (or at least pragmatism) with which you regard your current situation.
“Alongside this, the latest UCAS figures out last month show there are record numbers of people accepting a place to study nursing in England, with a 23% increase on the same time last year, or 5,000 more student nurses.”
It wasn’t in a mess before the Tories took over and created havoc.
Rubbish.
Much of the mess is down to Labour’s insistence on using PFI and their stopping GP’s from working out of hours.
But the NHS has (as you would expect from a nationalised industry) always been in a mess of some sort or another regardless of which “flavour” government has been in charge.
What is the situation in the private hospital system Zaphod??
For instance, do they have any spare capacity available to
accommodate covid patients in any way?? Or do they only take
paying guests?
Surely in a national emergency they could be mobilised for the
common good ?
Donkeyman!