A&E nursing posts unfilled

Many nursing posts are unfilled

Up to one in five nursing posts in A&E departments are unfilled, a survey has found.

The magazine Nursing Times carried out the poll at 20 hospital trusts.

The most severe recruitment problems were found in hospitals in London and the South East.

Too often temporary nursing staff are allocated in an ad hoc way

Tom Bolger

The A&E department at Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust had a 19.3% nurse vacancy rate.

The percentage of agency staff on a typical shift was as high as 28%.

Ashford and St Peter's Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs two A&E departments in Surrey, had a 17.62% vacancy rate.

At the North Bristol NHS Trust the rate was 16% with 40% of agency or bank nurses working on some shifts.

Patient safety concern

Not only are patients having to wait longer in Accident and Emergency to be seen but it appears they may not then be seen by the most appropriate staff

Dr Liam Fox

A spokesperson for the Trust warned the journal it was becoming more difficult to treat patients safely because of the rising number of agency nurses.

Skilled nurses were being lost to NHS Direct and walk-in centres which offer employees a more attractive lifestyle, the spokesperson said.

Tom Bolger, assistant general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, told Nursing Times: "This spot check on the state of emergency services certainly gives cause for concern.

"Too often temporary nursing staff are allocated in an ad hoc way and may have to care for patients in unfamiliar situations."

Three NHS Trusts - Central Manchester Healthcare, Birmingham Heartlands and Solihull and Carlisle Hospitals - have no A&E nurse vacancies.

The seven trusts from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland surveyed had vacancy rates of less than 12%.

Shadow Health Secretary, Dr. Liam Fox MP, said: "This is a further blow to the government's claims that things are improving.

"Not only are patients having to wait longer in Accident and Emergency to be seen but it appears they may not then be seen by the most appropriate staff.

"And this from a government that's been claiming there is no crisis in recruitment."

More investment

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We are investing £40m to fund an additional 600 A&E nursing posts and are working to boost nurse numbers in areas like London and the South East through specific measures, such as cost of living allowances worth up to £1,000 a year.

"Latest provisional figures show that a quarter of the 10,000 extra nurses and midwives that came into the NHS in the 12 months to September 2001 were in London, while 1,300 were in the South East.

"Nationwide, latest provisional figures show there are 27,000 more nurses and midwives in the health service than in 1997.

"However, one effect of this expansion is that vacancies may initially rise in some areas as more posts are created."