Great Ormond Street forced to turn away patients as nurse shortage bites

 
Nurse shortage: Great Ormond Street has been forced to cut the number of its beds
Daily Mail
29 November 2013

Great Ormond Street hospital has been forced to shut more than 10 per cent of its beds and turn away patients due to a national shortage of paediatric nurses.

The children’s hospital was forced on four occasions last month to declare a “red alert” — meaning it had none of its 355 beds available for booked or emergency admissions.

Hospital bosses admit that more than 40 beds have been closed at times due to a need to ensure that it has enough nurses per bed to ensure patient safety. Seriously ill children have had to remain in a general hospital or be diverted to other specialist hospitals.

There were a further 10 “amber” alerts last month when there were insufficient beds to cope with the number of patients awaiting treatment. The problems have been caused by “high” levels of skilled nursing vacancies, staff sickness, delays in replacing departed nurses and reconfiguration of wards as the hospital expands.

Robert Burns, the hospital’s director of planning, said intensive care nurses were being recruited from Portugal and Ireland because too few specialist nurses were being trained in the UK. He said: “This is a national problem, not just a problem for us in particular. This is a pool that isn’t quite big enough.”

Bernell Bussue, London director of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “This worrying report of bed closures at Great Ormond Street picks up on the concerns already being raised about how staff should be supported to provide effective care during a busy winter.

“We urgently need to look at whether enough training places are being commissioned for all disciplines to reinforce our nursing workforce and keep patients safe.”

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