Russells Hall Hospital vacancies put pressure on workforce

The workforce at Russells Hall has faced extra pressure because of 230 nursing vacancies.

A recruitment drive has seen the number of unfilled roles fall over the last six months but interim chief nurse Mary Sexton said "it should not be underestimated how hard nursing and midwifery staff were working".

The trust which runs the Dudley hospital said high vacancy rates were a problem across the NHS and that measures were being put in place to bolster numbers. Bosses also said staff numbers on the wards were monitored to ensure patient safety.

The total of vacancies has fallen from 338 since May but Ms Sexton told a recent board meeting it remained a challenging time.

Pressure on hospitals is expected to built over the coming weeks in the run-up to Christmas.

Minutes from the meeting said: "Mary Sexton assured the board that staff availability was continuously matched to acuity, and that staff were redeployed from non-patient activities where necessary.

"However, it remained a very challenging situation and it should not be underestimated how hard nursing and midwifery staff were working."

Dudley Group NHS Trust chief executive Diane Wake said: "Recruitment continues to be an issue nationally and the latest published figures from NHS England show that the highest percentage of vacancies (45 per cent) were in nursing and midwifery.

"We have 230 vacancies in both clinical and non clinical nursing roles and this has fallen by almost a third since May 2019 (338).

"As a trust we continue to actively recruit on a regular basis and are now seeing an increase in the number of experienced nurses choosing to work at Dudley. We are also welcoming more than 70 new graduate nurses over the next three months.

"We are proud that our staff turnover rate is below the average for acute NHS trusts in England and are grateful to our committed workforce for their hard work.

"To ensure patient safety matrons review staffing numbers twice per day."