Safe staffing levels
Like all hospitals in England and Wales, we must publish information about nursing staff levels on our wards every month. We work out how many nurses and midwives we need to be able to keep our patients safe by looking at how many patients we are caring for and how unwell they are.
Twice a year we review the number of registered and unregistered nurses on all of our wards, as well as comparing our staffing levels with hospitals similar to ours. Every month we review how many nurses and midwives we should have had on our wards compared with the numbers we actually had. These reviews help us write a safe staffing report and recommendations which is shared with our Trust Board.
Our Trust is committed to
- providing a safe environment for patients and staff, making sure that patients receive the right care at the right time by suitably trained staff.
- having plans in place to ensure that our wards are safely staffed.
- publishing information about our staffing levels monthly in line with the national guidance (NQB, 2016, NHSI, 2018). This includes reporting on Planned versus Actual staffing hours divided into staffing groups (Registered Nurses and Unregistered staff) and also on Care Hours per Patient Day.
- undertaking bi-annual establishment reviews using nationally-recognised, evidence-based tools to ensure that nurse staffing is appropriate for each ward.
- displaying both the planned and actual staffing levels on each ward/department.