One in 10 nurses missing from key wards at city hospital

ONE in ten nurses are missing from key wards at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

Figures show the hospital’s maternity ward was missing 11 percent of nurses - and its neonatal ward 10 percent of nurses - on average between January 2023 and November 2024.

NHS data obtained by Channel 4 News shows that three per-cent of nurses were missing from all wards across the hospital.

HOSPITAL: Worcestershire Royal Hospital says its wards are staffed in line with national guidance

Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital was also missing three per-cent of nurses from across its wards - and two percent on its critical care ward.

The data that gives us these figures is known as the ‘nurse fill rate’ - this compares the estimated number of nurses needed to run each ward with the actual staffing levels.

Sarah Shingler is chief nursing officer at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs both Worcestershire Royal Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital.

She said: “All adult inpatient wards and departments within our trust are staffed in line with national guidance set out by National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and Royal College of Nursing.

“We regularly monitor our staff levels across all wards/ departments to ensure safer staffing levels are achieved.”

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Studies have found there is a link between low staffing levels of nurses and patients dying or being harmed.

Adrian Clarkson, senior officer for Worcestershire at the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Maintaining safe staffing levels is paramount if NHS trusts are to provide good standards of care for patients.

“Although nurse vacancy rates in the West Midlands and elsewhere have come down slightly recently, our members tell us this hasn’t reduced the workload pressures they’re experiencing, so no-one should be under any illusion that the staffing crisis has gone away.

“Our fear is that as trusts are required to find millions of pounds in savings, health services and staffing again become vulnerable to cutbacks, which would be bad news for patient care and safety.

“The government must use next week’s spending review announcement to show it’s serious about investing in health and care services at the level required to meet people’s needs.”