Short staffing doubles A&E nurses' work - watchdog

A hospital's A&E department was found to be so short-staffed that nurses were caring for double the number of patients they should have been, an inspection discovered.

Merseyside's Whiston Hospital "frequently had delays in ambulance handovers and triage and was at full capacity or over" in its emergency department, according to the Care Quality Commission.

The watchdog conducted an unannounced inspection in March 2024 due to concerns about the access and flow around the department and people being cared for in non-clinical areas.

Earlier this January, the hospital was among many nationwide that declared a short-staffing critical incident - meaning medics from other departments in the hospital had to be diverted to under-pressure emergency services.

An 80-year-old man was among those experiencing long waits, while he was left on a hospital trolley for more than 40 hours over the new year period.

During the CQC inspection, inspectors found some areas of A&E only had one nurse caring for eight people instead of the recommended one-to-four ratio.

Their report said: "The service frequently had delays in ambulance handovers and triage and was at full capacity or over, meaning patients had long waits and were cared for in non-clinical areas."

They found risk assessments were carried out quickly and care plans were reviewed and updated to reflect people's choices, however workers said it was difficult to complete them due to a staff shortages and time constraints.

Inspectors said patients' feedback was "mixed", with complaints about spending long periods in corridors waiting for beds.

There was also only one toilet for the area, which was in a neighbouring department.

However, inspectors did note that safety had been a "priority" among hospital staff and "patients told us they had been treated with kindness and compassion and their dignity had been respected by staff and the department was clean".

"Leaders had put in place processes to manage the risks of care in non-clinical areas and efforts had been made to ensure that these areas were safe," they added.

In a statement, Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Many of the areas for improvement are issues affecting emergency departments up and down the country and we are committed to working with our partners across the health and care system to make the recommended changes."

It said managers were "proud that the assessors recognised our staff for being 'exceptionally caring'".

The service was not re-rated during this inspection and the hospital remains categorised as good overall.

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