Alone with the patients: dangerous staff ratios ‘normal’ say nurses

Many nurses say they are often left alone to care for more than 20 patients, far exceeding recommended safe ratios

Working on wards with dangerous staff-patient ratios is becoming ‘normal’ and many nurses say they are often left alone with more than 20 patients.

Earlier this month the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published a damning inspection report on Good Hope Hospital in the West Midlands that found an instance where one nurse was left alone in charge of 17 patients with complex needs.

• RELATED: Nursing single-handed: understaffed and caring for patients alone

Following Nursing Standard’s coverage of the report, nurses took to social media to lament that this issue was not out of the ordinary, with one telling of how she is often the sole nurse in a care home looking after 42 older patients with dementia.

• RELATED: Single nurse left alone to care for 17 patients amid staffing crisis

Skewed ratios now the norm, along with unmanageable caseloads in community nursing

Nurse Pauline Robinson said: ‘Unfortunately it has become the norm, along with unmanageable caseloads in community nursing. It is terrifying how the government have dismantled the NHS to this level, where providing safe and effective care is increasingly difficult with staff to patient ratios.’

Currently, safe staffing guidance published by the RCN recommends a ratio of one nurse for every six patients to ensure safety.

• RELATED: Nursing single-handed: understaffed and caring for patients alone

Facebook user Deborah Morgan said nurses working solo is normal on wards in mental health hospitals, with staff routinely working on their own at night. ‘We are lucky if we get two in the day. Society doesn’t realise why we are saying we need to strike. We have no staff,’ she added.

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Many blamed the government for the ratios, saying underfunding and huge staff vacancies are causing the NHS to fail and leaving nurses burnout and terrified of losing their NMC registration code or PIN.

One nurse said: ‘I’d be astounded if none of us in front-line healthcare haven’t been in that situation before.’

But one reader wrote on Facebook that the problem could not be solely blamed on the government, and instead changes need to be made by the NHS.

She said: ‘The government doesn't run the NHS – it just funds it with our taxes – maybe if they halved the number of managers, scrapped box-ticking non-jobs like diversity officers and 'lived experience' officers, and concentrated on treating patients better, we'd all benefit.'

• RELATED: Patient safety: safe staffing and knowing when not to compromise

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