Quota for hospital doctors to ease fears over safety Hospitals will be told how many doctors they need to have on wards, the NHS treatments adviser signalled yesterday, as health chiefs admitted that it would be a “massive challenge” to ensure safe numbers of staff. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said it plans to develop guidance to tell hospitals how many doctors and other health staff they ought to have on duty, after issuing similar advice on nursing numbers. Patients should feel free to challenge ward bosses on staffing numbers if they see “red flags” such as pain relief not being given or vital signs not being monitored, NICE added. Earlier this week it said numbers of nurses must be set and monitored on a shift by shift basis in its first staffing guidance. While NICE pointed to evidence saying that death rates rise sharply if each nurse is looking after more than eight patients, it stopped short of setting a minimum ratio. thetimes.co.uk/tto/health/news/article4089050.ece
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 08:19:29 +0000
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