NHS needs thousands of nurses as London wards are shut in ‘perfect storm’

 
'Perfect storm' of shortage of nurses in London
Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Hospital wards and operating theatres are being closed because of a “perfect storm” shortage of nurses in London, the Standard can reveal today.

Barts Health, which runs five east London hospitals, has almost 1,200 vacancies — one in five of its nurses and midwives. Almost one in six nursing posts were vacant in May at the Royal Free trust, which has three north London hospitals; at Imperial College Healthcare, which has five west London hospitals; and at St George’s in Tooting.

Experts believe the capital is short of “several thousand” nurses. Jan Stevens, interim chief nurse at Barts Health, said: “It’s like a perfect storm. Everyone is fishing in the same pond for nurses but there is a shortage.

“This is not just for Barts Health — it just looks worse for us because we are the biggest trust in the country. Obviously the vacancies we have sound staggering, but there are a lot of vacancies across the country.”

At St Bartholomew’s hospital the new Barts Heart Centre has been forced to close two theatres and two catheter labs. Staff shortages have forced the closure of 15 per cent of beds at the hospital in Smithfield, the Barts Health board was told yesterday.

Professor Charles Knight, director of Barts Heart Centre, said it had 120 nurse vacancies. Eighty job offers have been made, including to 44 nurses from the Philippines.

At Whipps Cross hospital, in Leytonstone, staff shortages have forced the closure of a midwife-led birth unit on 15 days so far this year. Beds were also closed on the trauma and orthopaedic wards at Whipps Cross.

Inspectors from Health Education England have sounded the alarm over two “adverse incidents” at Newham hospital’s maternity unit relating to a lack of cover. Across the trust, 46 “red flag” warnings were raised in June in relation to staffing.

The shortage of permanent staff has sent the trust’s bill for agency staff and overtime soaring to £14.3 million a month. As a result, Barts Health is facing a £134.9 million deficit by next March, the biggest ever seen in the NHS.

Demand for nurses has been driven by new, safer staffing ratios introduced after the Mid Staffs scandal and by hospitals having to care for older, sicker patients after the failure of care in the community initiatives. The nurse shortage at Barts Health more than doubled from 562 full-time posts in March to 1,173 in June.

The trust estimates it will take until February 2017 before it can reduce vacancies to five per cent. It expects to have to make more than 9,500 job offers to plug the gaps due to the one in seven staff who quit each year.

About 100 student nurses from London universities are due to join the trust in September. However the trust’s position as a “failing” organisation is proving a barrier, alongside the battle to retain new recruits for longer than a year.

“They can burn out,” Ms Stevens said. “It’s relentless out there on these wards. They’re so, so busy.”

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