The REC Healthcare division has welcomed recommendations from the Royal College of Nursing on ways to maintain nurse/patient ratios.
The RCN report underlined the importance of ensuring hospitals had enough staff to meet the needs of their patients, despite the government squeeze on public sector spending.
Tom Hadley, the REC’s director of policy and professional services, said the government should consider a system of nurse to patient quotas in order to maintain minimum staffing levels. He pointed out that similar systems work well in other countries and the UK urgently needs some objective criteria to address the increasing concerns that have been raised over the quality of care provided in some of our hospitals.
Recent reports in the media have brought the problem of insufficient staffing levels into the spotlight. A lot of these reports suggest nursing staff do not have the time to give patients the attention they deserve and set quotas could go some way towards solving that problem.
Specialist healthcare agencies also have a vital support role to play by making sure suitably skilled and properly vetted staff are on hand to fill staffing shortages at a moment’s notice.
It’s not only the patients who complain about staff shortages in our hospitals. Nurses are also very much aware that the shortage of staff, coupled with the endless paperwork they have to complete, means they are left with less time to devote to individual patient care.
The UK used to have a National Health Service that was envied the world over. The government needs to act quickly to solve the problem of staff shortages if it wants to restore the NHS to its former glory.
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Image: Nurse April by timefornurses
