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Nurses were knowingly overworked, inquest told
Thursday 20th May 2010, 11:29AM BST.
Bosses at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust knowingly overworked their staff and failed to train them properly, it was claimed at an inquest.
The inquest in Telford on Francis Steele, 89, heard from a nursing expert who said managers also failed to deal with staff who were struggling to cope with the workload.
Mr Steele, of Lower Netchwood, Ditton Priors near Bridgnorth, died two weeks after falling out of bed in November 2007, after staff failed to put a second rail on his bed, the inquest has previously been told.
Irene Waters, a nursing expert, carried out an independent report into Mr Steele’s care at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital.
Mrs Waters told the inquest: “There’s evidence that the staff did report that they were concerned but the managers on duty failed to react to these real concerns. There’s evidence of staff missing breaks and this is unsafe practice. The trust failed in its duty of care. They were knowingly allowing staff to work over.”
The jury also heard how staff should have been working at a safe level of 100 per cent. However, figures presented to the inquest revealed the majority of the time staff worked at 130 per cent and above, which was a risk to patients.
Mrs Waters said: “It’s a dangerous level. Given the nature of the ward when you had people with a dependency who needed a lot of care and the fact that you had some critically ill people, I think the workload is impossible.”
She also said staff either ignored the hospital’s bed rail policy, which she said could have prevented Mr Steele’s fall, or were not trained in it by the trust.
The inquest continues
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